This essay evaluates two central bank policy tools, capital requirements and lending of last resort, designed to avert financial panics in the context of endowment economies with complete markets and limited borrower commitment. Credit panics are self-fulfilling shocks to expected credit...

We explain the large observed volatility of commercial and industrial loans as a Markov equilibrium of an economy with limited commitment in which all credit is unsecured and self-enforcing. Aggregate income growth shocks affect gains from future asset market trading, inducing fluctuations in...