Update: PPP Loan Data Continues to Show that Big Bank Consolidation has Hampered Small Business Relief

Date: 15 Jun 2020 | posted in: agriculture | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

After Congress authorized a second round of PPP funding in May, news stories suggested that the big banks, like JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, were picking up the pace and catching up to small banks. Yet data on total PPP lending through June 6 continue to show that a greater presence of big banks in a state correlates with fewer relief loans made to small businesses.… Read More

How Washington Punishes Small Business

Date: 8 May 2015 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In our op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, we look at how much of our public policy seems to designed to bend the market in the favor of big corporations, and put small, independent businesses at a competitive disadvantage.… Read More

Federal Study Confirms “Too Big To Fail” Gives Megabanks a Hidden Funding Advantage

Date: 20 Aug 2014 | posted in: Banking | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

When the country’s giant banks were teetering on the verge of collapse during 2008’s financial crisis, the U.S. government stepped in to bail them out. The banks were, in a phrase that has since become infamous, “Too Big To Fail.” Would the government do it again? And does the expectation that it would step in give megabanks an unfair competitive advantage over local community banks? Those are the questions at the heart of an eagerly awaited report released at the end of July by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal department. In a conclusion that highlights the need for more regulatory action to reduce concentration in the banking system, the G.A.O. found that the answers to both questions are “yes.”… Read More

Stacy Mitchell on Local Bites Podcast (Audio)

Date: 2 May 2014 | posted in: Banking, Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell is interviewed on the Local Bites Podcast. She lays out the evidence against the growing consolidation of economic power in the hands of a few global corporations and exposes the policy decisions that have led us down this path. She highlights several promising initiatives from the growing localization movement, and outlines the key components of a ‘localist policy agenda’. … Read More

Understanding the Small Business Credit Crunch

Date: 16 Apr 2014 | posted in: Banking, Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Even as their big competitors are awash in capital, many locally owned businesses are struggling to secure the financing they need to grow. This analysis finds that, since 2000, bank lending to large businesses is up 36 percent, while small business loan volume has fallen 14 percent and “micro” business loans — those under $100,000 — have plummeted 33 percent.… Read More

Change in Volume of Bank Loans to Businesses, by Loan Size, 2000-2012

Date: 15 Apr 2014 | posted in: Banking, Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Since 2000, the overall volume of business lending per capita at banks has grown by 26 percent, but this expansion has entirely benefited large businesses. Small business loan volume at banks is down 14 percent and micro business loan volume is down 33 percent. … Read More

Towards a Localist Policy Agenda

Date: 5 Jul 2013 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

To regenerate local businesses, we’ll need more than Buy Local campaigns; we’ll need to change public policy, which now favors big business. In this presentation, Stacy Mitchell looks at seven key policy areas to focus on.… Read More

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