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March 16, 2009

Obama Sets Sights on Small Business
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=22E2B06:A6F02AD83191E16081421DBA2CC480972A201403E89ED254&
 
Outlines plan Monday making it easier for small businesses to borrow
money 
UPresident Barack Obama (file).S. President Barack Obama is set to focus
more government help on small businesses, while new economic data shows
more problems for a key sector of the U.S. economy. Some economists say
small businesses are a major creator of new jobs, so the Obama
Administration will outline a plan Monday to make it easier for small
businesses to borrow the money they need to expand and hire people. The
program also includes focusing money from the stimulus package in ways
that helps banks' confidence, and encourages them to lend to small
businesses. The program comes as new government reports on Monday say
U.S. industrial production fell for the fourth month in a row in
February. Other data shows the amount of U.S. factory capacity being
used matched a record-low level. Late Sunday, the head of the U.S.
central bank said the recession will end this year if the government has
the political will to get banks to lend more money. In a television
interview, (on CB!
 S) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he can see the recession
ending this year with a recovery starting in 2010. But he said there
will be no recovery if the financial markets are not stabilized and
working normally. He said the biggest risk to recovery is the lack of
political will. Bernanke also said the United States is past the point
of plunging into another great depression similar to what happened in
the 1930s. The director of Mr. Obama's National Economic Council, Larry
Summers, said Sunday (on ABC's "This Week") it is "outrageous" that
troubled insurance giant American International Group plans to pay tens
of millions of dollars in new bonuses. AIG officials say they are
contractually obligated to pay the bonuses. The federal government has
allotted $180 billion in federal funds to rescue AIG after it posted
major losses because of the troubled housing market. Earlier this month,
AIG announced a fourth-quarter loss of more than $60 billion, the
largest corporate loss in history.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters


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