The current environment finds small businesses and consumers are facing obstacles in trying to find available credit according to the Congressional Oversight Panel’s latest report.
Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the panel, is concerned the government’s efforts to date, specifically the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), is focused on the securitization of consumer loans, which doesn’t do much for small businesses.
“There’s a fair question about whether dollars put into this [TALF] program are going to be felt for the small business who are struggling to get themselves enough lifeblood, enough money to keep going,” Warren says.
That’s critical because, according to the panel’s report, small businesses:
•Produce about half of the nation’s private, nonfarm GDP.
•Employ more than half of all private-sector workers.
•Generated more than half of all new jobs over the past 10 years and nearly 79% of new jobs created in 2004-2005.
“We still need to keep thinking about how to get enough credit to small businesses,” Warren says. “We can’t say ‘we got TALF, let’s move on to next issue.’”
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