Likewise loose credit feeds into fast growth only after a lag (of up to nine months, by some estimates).
While the first part of the chapter deals more with the history of insurance than the history of slavery, she argues slave life insurance both encouraged the growth of credit and fed off credit systems.
For 15 years, as the Celtic tiger has leapt and growled, the Irish countryside has been sustained by developers who, on a credit binge fed by bankers, have built and built and built.
Many loans and bonds that comply with Shariah, or Islamic law, were issued in recent years by Dubai World, the investment arm of Dubai, and other Persian Gulf companies as oil-rich Middle East nations increased spending, and the global credit crisis fed debt investments in emerging markets.
To some extent, state tax credits have fed the supply of American films, even when they face uncertain prospects abroad.
Meanwhile, the government's tax-cutting and easy-credit policies fed an investment and housing boom, again fueling inflation.
Yet for those who require credit to feed their families, pay heating bills or buy winter clothing, such credit is socioeconomically necessary as opposed to merely wanted.
In addition, banks reported more stringent credit standards, feeding worries that consumers, nervous about their job prospects and income levels, would continue to rein in spending.
Even as Mr. Geithner was counseling banks to take precautions against adversity, some economists were arguing that easy credit was feeding a more obvious problem: a housing bubble.
