Small Business Administration talk-show

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Lijkt mij dat, naast de woningbouw, het 'midden- en kleinbedrijf' ook in
de USA (net als in andere Westerse landen) de grootste werkgever is. Er
zijn er immers zo'n 26 miljoen! Daar zullen veel 1-pitters tussen
zitten, maar in zijn totaliteit groter dan de zgn. grote bedrijven.

Dan is een reductie van $10 miljard in leningen niet in het belang van
de economie, en zal een $500 miljoen van GS (waarvan dan ook nog een
deel naar scholing gaat) niet veel helpen als de meeste al gesloten zijn
(met die multiplex platen op de deur).

Groet / Cees

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Small Business Administrator Karen
Mills will host a forum this week on how to get much-needed dollars to
America's small businesses.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/17/smallbusiness/small_business_forum_geithner_sba/index.htm
By Catherine Clifford, CNNMoney.com staff reporter
Last Updated: November 18, 2009: 9:41 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Several top administration officials,
including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Small Business
Administration head Karen Mills, will meet Wednesday with bankers,
policy makers and business owners to discuss the grim state of small
business lending.

The meeting comes on the heels of a new Treasury report showing that the
nation's biggest banks have reduced their small business lending by more
than $10 billion over the past six months. Last month, President Obama
ordered Mills and Geithner to convene a conference to "determine what
additional steps we can take to get credit flowing to small businesses
that want to expand and create more jobs."

Since the recession began, that credit has been bottlenecked. The number
of bank loans backed by the Small Business Administration fell 36% in
the 2009 fiscal year, despite millions in government spending on lending
incentives for banks. SBA officials say the drop-off would have been
even worse without the stimulus measures.

Outrage on Main Street: The meeting could feature fireworks. Small
business owners would like the government to do more to shore up Main
Street companies -- and when they see taxpayers lose billions bailing
out Wall Street banks, their pitchforks come out.

In advance of Wednesday's gathering, Karen Mills hosted an online chat
session this week to field e-mailed questions from business owners.

Chuck Blakeman, president of Team Nimbus West, a Denver-based small
business advisory firm, sent in a query about how one of the
administration's new proposals -- raising the cap on SBA loans to $5
million -- will be helpful when most business owners can't convince a
bank to lend them any money at all.

But during Mills' online discussion, his question was paraphrased to
instead ask how raising the loan cap would affect small businesses. That
prompted Blakeman to fire off a blistering e-mail to the SBA afterward.

"It is one thing to hold a forum and not directly answer any of the
questions asked. It is quite another to completely change the meaning of
someone's question to deceptively use them to create an opportunity to
blow your own horn," Blakeman wrote. "If we are going to have
transparency and change we can believe in, it has to apply in this
situation as well."

That's what business owners will be watching for on Wednesday. In
addition to administration officials and members of Congress, attendees
will include representatives of top small business lenders such as
JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) and
Huntington Bank (HBAN).

Entrepreneurs will get their say during a one-hour panel discussion with
small business owners from around the U.S., and during afternoon
breakout sessions. The day is slated to conclude with a discussion on
how to spur job creation and economic growth.

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