The Small Business Administration said on Nov. 23 that it has run through all of the $375 million Congress allocated to temporarily waive fees and boost SBA guarantees on small business loans, said CNNMoney.com.

SBA chief Karen Mills put out a statement two weeks ago cautioning banks that funds were low but believed the money would last through December.

Congress approved funds for the SBA through February 16, 2010. SBA officials would like to extend the lending program through that date, estimating it would need about $100 million, according to CreditDaily.com. The SBA says the program has resulted in more than 40,000 loans to small businesses.

The government is considering other programs to benefit small businesses. Earlier in the month, President Obama announced a plan to offer banks low-interest government loans in order to encourage lending to small businesses. With $200 billion left in the TARP bailout fund, Senate Democrats want some $40 billion spent on small business loans. And Goldman Sachs said recently that it would spend $500 million to help thousands of struggling small businesses.

In a public act of contrition, Goldman Sachs earlier this week said that it would spend $500 million to help thousands of struggling small businesses. That’s about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion the company has so far set aside to pay its employees this year, reported the New York Times.

The bank will work with billionaire financier Warren Buffet to help 10,000 small businesses with education and mentoring programs, and more importantly, access to capital, according to the Times.

The goodwill gesture comes on the heels of Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s statement that the bank is “doing God’s work” in an attempt to justify the company’s massive executive bonuses.

Blankfein also issued an apology for the company’s role in recession. “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret,” he said at a news conference. “We apologize.”

Sachs and other Wall Street giants has been the object of public outrage after receiving billions of taxpayer dollars in bailout funds. Most of those companies, once on the brink of collapse, have rebounded and are turning profits again. The company still plans to dole out billions of dollars in executive bonuses this year, saying that it’s necessary in order to retain top talent.

Like rebellious teenagers, big banks are eager to assert their independence from Washington after receiving billions in federal TARP money.

Ten big banks say they have raised enough money to pay back those government loans. JP Morgan Chase repaid $25 billion, with interest, while Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs announced they had each returned $10 billion to the government, said the New York Times.

American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, Capital One Financial, State Street, Northern Trust, BB&T and U.S. Bancorp also raised enough money to repay their loans and exit the government rescue program.

Now that the worst of the economic crisis has passed, banks want to be free of government control and the regulations that come with it.

In order to exit the program, banks needed to prove they had enough capital to withstand a deep recession while continuing to foster lending, sell long-term debt and meet their funding obligations, said the Associated Press.

Consumer spending at major retailers dropped in May, the 10th month in a row of same-store sales declines, according to a survey by Goldman Sachs and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Overall same-store sales fell 4.6 percent, according to the Goldman Sachs study, worse than the 3 percent drop predicted.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has posted gains but stopped reporting its sales numbers in May. Other major retailers are still showing year-to-year declines, with Target’s May 2009 sales down 6 percent from May 2008, Costco’s sales were down 7 percent and Macy’s sales down 9 percent.

While consumer confidence has lifted, shoppers still aren’t ready to open up their wallets at the cash register, citing fears about job losses and falling home prices. Consumers are spending money on necessities like food and health care, said the Associated Press.

“I think the initial panic is over, but now the tough work begins. We’re entering a slow summer period when there’s not a lot to attract consumers into the stores,” BMO Capital Markets analyst John Morris told the Associated Press.

Just when it seems like the bad news couldn’t get much worse, tales of economic success amid financial chaos are thankfully bubbling up.

And it’s in the form of successful entrepreneurship, everything from shoestring-budget start-ups to major viral marketing coups by tiny companies.

Recession be damned, some entrepreneurs are not only doing well, they are doing exceptionally well, wrote Jill Priluck of MSNBC’s “The Big Money” on March 17.

“With less overhead, a slim-to-none bureaucracy, and a philosophy that goes against even the most innovative Fortune 500 game plan, little guys in industries such as finance, marketing, entertainment, and media are busy, some more than ever, and a few are moving into territory where the big fish can’t swim. Whether making deals, planning ad campaigns, or signing talent, all small fish have the same slogan: lighter, cheaper, faster,” she wrote. “Welcome to the Little-Guy Economy, where boutique investment banks make deals while big finance is frozen, where Web geeks field calls from big media and corporate clients who need viral video and other digital-branding tools, where small law firms prosper and laid-off lawyers open their own shops, where independent music labels innovate faster, and where the word “team” can have a whole new meaning.”

Finance is perhaps the most interesting example, where small firms are playing a strong hand, particularly in the credit markets, where huge loans are history.

“While firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase depend on freely flowing credit markets, boutique firms, which do smaller deals, rely more on private equity sponsors—and don’t have the same bank, credit, or securitization obligations,” Priluck wrote.

If small is in, then it doesn’t take long for some bigger fish to swim over and take a look.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — as big a billionaire as there is — is now looking to spearhead small business and entrepreneurship in the financial services sector, Priluck wrote.

Video producers Lindsey Johnson and Leo Borovskiy of Lush Life Productions know how it is to make it big when your administrative assistant is your voice mailbox.

They turned a viral marketing jackpot and YouTube sensation “The Chad” into a thriving business that today includes clients like Hearst Digital, Priluck wrote.

“We’ve gone from only working for advertising agencies and marketing companies to having corporations directly approach us with their brands and ask, ‘What can you do and how much can you do it for?” Johnson told Priluck.