December 1999 LSAT Section 2 Question 15

During the recent economic downturn, banks contributed to the decline by loaning less money. Prior to the downturn, ...

Abigail-Okereke on November 9, 2022

complicated answer choice

My pre-phrase for this question was "the economic downturn did not cause banks to loan less." Which matched the beginning of choice a, but after I kept reading I was confused. It seemed like it was purposely trying to complicate things. Can someone please tell me how to approach confusing answer choices and break down what a is saying simply?

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Emil-Kunkin on February 23, 2023

Hi, your prephrase is great, that was my thinking as well. What A boils down to is: banks didn't lend less for this one specific reason related to the downturn. While I think it is a necessary assumption that banks didn't lend less because of the downturn, we don't really care about the causal pathway. Maybe they chose to lend less because of a fall in deposits, maybe because of a fall in interest rates, or maybe because of worries about inability to repay. A is saying that the decline in lending was not caused by one specific factor that a recession causes, not that the decline in lending was not an outcome of the recession.