Banks still aren’t lending, and it’s getting worse for small businesses – the nation’s jobs engine. Why did we bail out the big banks, again? Why can’t our government just hire people like we did in the depression, and why can’t our government just loan to the job creators instead of the job killers?
In November I wrote about how US Steel can’t get financing to complete the Clairton coke battery plant.
A CNN report this week: Banks pull another
$1 billion from small business lending,
The nation’s biggest banks cut their collective small business lending balance by another $1 billion in November, according to a Treasury report released late Friday. The drop marked the seventh straight month of declines.… 10 of the 22 banks have cut their small business balances every single month since April. That list includes firms such as JPMorgan … that are now posting monster profits. … JP Morgan said its compensation expenses rose 18% during the year to $26.9 billion, much of which will be distributed as bonuses.
The initial bank bailout was presented to Congress as necessary because of an emergency so severe it required passage in 48 hours, would have no oversight and would be “non-reviewable by any court or any agency”. Of course, when it didn’t pass in 48 hours the economy didn’t collapse, but they did eventually pass it because it is a higher law that the big banks must get what they demand.
