The USA:
Jobs: Small Business Loans Are The Mountain Blocking Economic Recovery
Phillip Williams — Apr 17, 2010
Why Small Business Loans Are Important
The economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the start of the recession. Small businesses employ the majority of the American workforce, although the largest single employer is still the federal government.
When the economy starts to recover small businesses rely on loans to bring up their inventory levels. Large banks and smaller institutions have been reluctant to introduce new loans after the failure of a large number banking institutions.
Small banks do not have the resources to start lending again, and the number of new loans have gone down since the start of the recession.
Banks that received funds from the Troubled Asset Relief program. The larger banks that were branded as too big to fail have also reduced the number of new loans they make to small businesses. They have reinvested the funds in lower-return, lower-risk treasury bonds instead.