Blogger: Big banks getting a pass
Monday, April 13th, 2009Author : Biz2Credit Advisor
The federal government is pouring cash into huge financial firms with very little oversight while even the slightest hand out to small business owners brings “we-need-scrutiny naysayers” out of the woodwork, says journalist JJ Ramberg of “Your Business.”
Ramberg, who anchors the MSNBC weekly show on small business, continued in her March 18 blog post:
“Maybe I’m missing something here, but small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy, and they are struggling right now largely through no fault of their own. They can’t get loans because the big boys messed up the system; and the faltering economy — caused in large part by the big financial firms — is also taking a big bite out of their sales,” Ramberg wrote. “All they want is a little bit of a break. So many entrepreneurs I’ve profiled in this blog — and many of the ones who post comments here — are struggling to keep their doors open.”
The impetus for her outrage came from a recent proposal by President Barack Obama to boost declining lending on Small Business Administration-backed loans. The idea was to do such economy-stirring efforts as directly purchasing up to $15 billion of securities backed by loans from the SBA, eliminating fees and increasing loan guarantees.
But it soon ran into criticism, she said, citing a Wall Street Journal story that worried the Obama administration could be creating incentives for another run on unwise credit and create a huge pool of unregulated money.
“I’m all for putting a lid on the bailout free-for-all with tougher standards and regulations,” she wrote, “but isn’t it odd that when small businesses want a helping hand suddenly the scrutiny reaches a fever pitch?”



