When the bottom dropped out of the U.S. real estate market, a rash of mortgage defaults kicked off a chain reaction affecting large banking institutions and financial markets the world over.
Now uncertain about the value of investments and scared to make the same mistakes, creditors either don't have the cash or are more careful in how they invest it.
Thus they are making cash and credit less available for everything from home and car loans to business acquisitions - a condition known as the credit crunch.
UF Survey Research Director, Chris McCarty, and BEBR economist, David Denslow, provide commentary on this issue.