Grim Milestones: Lending Drops at 'Epic Pace', Past Due Loans at Record High, New Home Sales at Record Low, 30% of Mortgages at Risk

It's another Obama miracle!

The Big Picture points us to today's Wall Street Journal cover story ("Lending Falls at Epic Pace").

The highlights:

• U.S. banks registered their most severe declines in lending since 1942.

• The FDIC reports that the number of U.S. banks at risk of failure surpassed 700, which is a 16-year high.

• More than 5% of all loans are past due 90-days or more, the highest level ever recorded.

Calculated Risk adds more evidence of the miraculous Obama recovery.

• 11.3 million, or roughly one-quarter, of all U.S. residential mortgages were in negative equity (worth less than their loans).

• 2.3 million more mortgages were approaching negative equity at the end of the year. Together, these represent 30% of all residential mortgages at risk.

The icing on the cake? CNN alerts us to another catastrophic statistic:

• New home sales fell 11.2% to a record low in January despite an $8,000 tax credit. It was the lowest rate since the feds began tracking the statistic and followed drops in November and December.

I really wish President Obama had held a real job before he took his current role. Like, running the cash register at a 7-11 or serving as the assistant manager of a LaserTag franchise. I think some experience in the real world would have helped.

It might have gotten him off of this bizarre health care obsession.