Why is everyone using the spin phrase "CREDIT CRUNCH"?

Question

Lets be realistic! Its a recession - pure and simple!

Did someone wake up one morning and say to Gordon Brown...."nobody likes the word RECESSION.... why don't we get everyone to call it something subtle... like a credit crunch??"

FFS!!!

Answer 1

Because it has become more difficult to get car loans and mortgages.

Soon to spill over to credit cards I hope not.  Just a convenient term, crunch, tightening up, actually fits.

It may be worse than a recession, with factors never since the 1930's, for instance falling home prices with inflation.  Inflation always hurts the wealthiest classes, because they are diversified money wise, and for the common man, only effected what he spent his money on exclusively;   and if he owned a home, house prices went up, so his net worth went up also, the little guy not diversified, his majority of savings, or the thing that he owned of most value was his home.  This is the first time that home values are going down, since the 1930's, during an inflationary period.

A recession is technicly two quaters in a row of negative growth.

Answer 2

The current economic crisis could be described thus:

'A restriction of lending funds precipitated by bad lending, the propensity to borrow instead of save, aggravated by rising fuel costs and static wages'...or we could just call it a credit crunch...

Let's face it, if we give it a vague title which cant be quantified, it makes it easier for politicians to say that it is either getting better or worse.

http://www.thecreditcruncher.com/2008/07...

How does one quantify the credit crunch? is it a percentage? can we measure it is dollars or euros?....NO...in a sense the credit crunch doesn't actually exist, but then how would newspapers report it if we didn't give it a nice alliterative title?

Credit Crunch, Debt Dump, Loss-leader Loans... get your thinking caps on...!

Answer 3

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

Look, no matter what you call it, it is what it is. A huge economic meltdown. Hopefully the good ole US of A will get it together.

Answer 4

Credit Crunch sounds better than Consumer Stupidity.  The majority of Americans are not in debt over their heads and have no difficulty securing credit.  But that does not make headlines

Answer 5

Like you said, nobody likes the word recession, credit crunch causes less of a panic.

Answer 6

recession cuz it has the word recess in it and who does not like recess in school.

Answer 7

it is brainwashing

Answer 8

An economist's definition of a recession is 2 straight quarters of negative economic growth.  We've yet to see 1 quarter, even though growth is slowing.  So we're technically not in a recession.

Credit crunch is referring to the fact that a lot of lenders offered too many bad loans, so they're being a lot more selective in who they're lending to.

We're certainly in an inflationary period, with gas & food prices rising dramatically.

So we're technically not in a recession.  But it's certainly a tougher economic time for just about everybody.  Maybe a new term is needed.