Ethan has been posting a TED spread watch for the past week or so, and we all get that a bigger number is bad, and the size of the number right now is very very bad. NPR this morning helped me put the meaning of that number into perspective.

The reporter (Adam Davidson) interviews a bank to bank short term loan broker. The short of it is that there are dozens of banks on thier "looking for money to borrow" board and none on the "have money to lend" board. They say there hasn't been any traffic between banks brokered by them for THREE WEEKS. The brightest news in the story is that the broker heard from another broker about another firm that had a bid (that is A bid. a single bid) for a sell this week.

It seems to not matter how high the TED spread gets at this point. The global liquidity market is dry. a higher TED can't make it any more messed up.

The story is here.