Word: lending
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Those that are in the market to borrow are often doing so with ease. In Atlanta, Rob Hale didn't have any problem getting a loan. The president and CEO of United Controls International, which tests circuit breakers and fuses for nuclear power plants, actually had banks competing to lend him money to buy a new building. "I've never seen an environment like this," he says. "Banks are clamoring for my businesses." He now has three offers on the table and is going back to each of the banks, which have started lowering interest rates and removing loan covenants...
...Austin, Texas, Edward Lette, CEO of the Business Bank of Texas, is scouring the business community for companies to lend to. He's not having much luck. "I'm struggling to find qualified credits," says Lette. "Many times, people come in and apply for loans, but it's not to grow their business - it's to get their business out of the hole they're in because they've already borrowed way too much." On more than one occasion, Lette has recommended that instead of a loan, a business owner contemplate bankruptcy...
...might start to see a problem, according to Raj Date, executive director of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy. In congressional testimony on March 2, he made the case that as the demand for loans from creditworthy borrowers picks back up, there might not be enough lending to go around. Part of that has to do with many small banks' capital constraints - money they would lend is still tied up in those real estate loans. Just as important, though, other places business owners have looked to for funding in recent years, like home-equity loans and credit lines...
...bottom-line costs of the massive new initiatives out of Washington on health care reform and carbon-emission regulation. Even companies that are financially fit often don't feel like taking the risk of ramping up operations and hiring more workers. There's been political pressure on banks to lend, but the problem for some bankers, like Frost Bank CEO Dick Evans, is that many businesses are debt-shy. "I'm aggressively trying to make loans, but right now they don't want to borrow," he says. "At this point," says Harvard Business School strategy expert Michael Porter...
...That's not as self-evident as it may sound. There is no shortage of theories about why companies aren't adding jobs faster. Banks won't lend to enable them to expand. Extra workers are too expensive because of taxes and health care costs. But the real clog in the nation's job-creating machinery is much more basic: a lack of demand for goods and services...