re: "IMO, he will guarentee an Obama landslide."
clo,
Keep telling yourself that - but you're out of touch with where sentiment for a winning incumbent would need to be at this point in his reelection bid. The coming year will be very, VERY bad for the President.
December 16, 2011
Bank loans to small business fall to 12-year
By Jacob Fenton, Investigative Reporting Workshop
MSNBC.com
New federal data show that the number of small bank loans to business has fallen to the lowest point in more than a decade, cutting the flow of money to a sector that's usually a job-creation powerhouse.
"It's usually the smaller business that is more able to bounce back and take advantage of different opportunities faster than a middle-market company," said Linda O'Connell, manager of small business research at Barlow Research Associates, a Minneapolis market research firm that focuses on the financial industries. "We haven't seen that."
An analysis of recently released Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data by the Investigative Reporting Workshop shows that overall commercial and industrial lending by banks has increased for five straight quarters, but small loans to business of $1 million or less have been shrinking consistently since June 2008. As of Sept. 30, total outstanding loan volume was down 14.7 percent from its peak.
The reduction of bank credit has had an even bigger impact on small business than it would on large business, which can borrow money through corporate bonds and "commercial paper." In contrast, small businesses rely almost exclusively on credit provided from banks.
The current situation stands in stark contrast to the recession at the start of the decade, following the dot-com bust. Even though commercial lending dropped severely, small business lending kept chugging upward. In this recession, the number of individual small business loans has fallen even further. Banks reported having just 1.5 million of those loans outstanding on Sept. 30, the smallest number since 1999, according to the FDIC data. Bank regulators define small business lending as loans of $1 million or less, regardless of the size of the business.
The numbers are especially troubling because businesses with fewer than 500 employees created 65 percent of the jobs between 1993 and 2009, according to the Small Business Administration. But in a November survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small business advocacy group, only 7 percent said the next three months would be a "good time to expand."
While overall commercial lending has rebounded, lending to small businesses has fallen
over the past two years.
More: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9470807-bank-loans-to-small-business-fall-to-12-year-low
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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