"Seriously Delinquent" Auto Loans Surge

``So it's all there -- the ingredients for bigger losses among banks and investors, a few failures of smaller specialized subprime lenders, and belated credit tightening, both out of necessity and due to lower competition among lenders as some of the most aggressive ones will be busy licking their wounds. And auto sales -- not long ago the truly hot sector in the US economy -- are now confronted with these tightening credit conditions as growth has already been stalling.''