"The strength of this capital expenditure number is in some ways borrowing demand from the future because it will wind down," he said.
The BBA's statistics director, David Dooks said: "January's severe weather impacted adversely on what was already a subdued picture of borrowing demand from households and businesses.
Also, interest rates would move higher anyway if the economy picks up speed and borrowing demand rises, with or without a plan aimed at stimulating the economy.
For one thing, increased sales of autos and homes have been largely subsidized by government incentive programs that are borrowing demand from future months.
Ford said it earned $1 billion in the July-September period, but did not break out the contribution of the Cash For Clunkers program, which borrowed demand from future quarters as buyers were enticed to dealerships with incentives funded by the federal government.
"I suspect borrowing demand has also gone down, but the bigger reason is that lenders are less willing to lend".
For if workers see their real wages fall at the same time as the credit crunch is constraining their ability to borrow, consumer demand will suffer.
Businesses remained pessimistic and reluctant to borrow, and demand for commercial and industrial loans continued to fall or stay weak in half of the Fed's regions, including New York, where two of the three biggest U.S. banks are based.
It is not clear that lowering them further would do much to encourage lending, especially since many companies do not see a need to borrow primarily because demand is so weak, and not because credit is expensive.
O'Brien prefers to think positively of the tight budgets that borrowing demands: "If you have limited resources, you have to be more clever, more skillful, more defiant".
