|
|
| |
| |
Small Business Owners Angry at Big Banks |
| |
|
| |
| Small Business Owners Angry at Big Banks |
| Monday, September 21,2009 05:36 AM |
|
One year ago this week, Lehman Brothers closed its doors. Financial panic, obvious from the rapid decline of stock markets, spread like a contagion. The meltdown obviously hurt me, like many people who had much of their retirement savings loaded into equities. Of course, the panic spread when the federal government effectively took over the insurer American International Group and its mind-boggling debts a day later. But the impact the unfolding financial debacle might have on our family-run plastic packaging manufacturer didn't hit home until a day or two later, when I called our banker at Wells Fargo & Co. and asked for an increase in our credit line.
Ignorant of what the financial Jericho meant, I picked the wrong week to call our bank and ask for more money. Mind you, I was only asking for access. On that fateful week we didn't have a dime withdrawn against our line of credit, so my request was really only an attempt to create additional access to capital should we need it. I didn't foresee any objections. Our balance sheet was strong, and Wells had never said no to us before. But on Sept. 17, 2008, my bank nodded its head side to side, and my confidence has never been the same.
Read the rest to see why small businesses and their banks may face a long road to rebuilding their formerly happy relationships: http://www.newsweek.com/id/215442
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
