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Francis Cianfrocca joins Ben Domenech for the Friday, September 25th edition of Coffee & Markets, a series of brief morning podcasts on politics and the marketplace, now appearing as well on WashingtonTimes.com.

Today’s podcast focuses on today’s news from the Commerce Department and a report about the dangers of shadow banking.

Items discussed include this article from the Financial Times:

The US financial sector’s losses on large loans exploded over the past year, exceeding the combined losses since 2001, with hedge funds and other members of the “shadow banking system” hit the hardest, official figures revealed on Thursday.

Regulators’ annual review of “shared national credits” – loans larger than $20m shared by three or more federally regulated institutions – highlighted the toll taken by the crisis on financial groups outside the traditional banking sector.

More than one in three dollars lent by non-bank institutions such as hedge funds, securitisation vehicles and pension funds, went sour, according to the figures, compared with 11.5 per cent for US banks.