2023 As Year Of The Recession-Causing Credit Crunch

The case for fear and, more to the point, recession, isn't difficult to make now. Notwithstanding Wall Street's $30 billion vote of confidence in the US banking system, concerns lingered Friday. First Republic shares traded sharply lower, and contagion worries were pervasive. Irrespective of whether we're all staring down a full-blown crisis, the odds of an economic downturn are clearly higher than they were just two weeks ago. As discussed in these pages on too many occasions to count over th