Word: smaller
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There are plenty of reasons to believe that small businesses aren't getting the credit they need. In the last three months of 2009, business lending at smaller banks, which tend to cater to smaller companies, was down at a 13% annual rate, according to the Federal Reserve. Not only are loans harder to come by, but they're also more expensive. That has the potential to slow down economic recovery, since firms that can't borrow often can't expand. Policymakers have responded with a number of programs to boost small-business lending, including an Obama Administration proposal...
...That recovery will be driven by Deere's farm-equipment unit, which still comprises 90% of its sales. Even here, Deere's gotten tough, canceling franchise contracts with smaller dealers - who, like the farmers, are deeply brand-loyal - encouraging them to partner with higher-volume dealership chains. "Our customers now have to drive more than an hour to get parts," says Roy Dufault, whose family-run franchise in Fosston, Minn., closed in October after 80 years of selling John Deere products. "At harvest time, if a tractor breaks down, an hour means a lot of money lost...
...last season, Mosley and the teams finally compromised on something called a Resource Restriction Agreement that takes effect this season. It isn't a cap, but it clamps down on runaway costs like wind tunnels and in-season testing. The big teams can still outspend their smaller rivals on, say, computer simulations, but just about everything in F1 is downsizing. It's now possible to field a respectable team, if not a winning one, for $100 million a season. New FIA president, former Ferrari manager Jean Todt, has pledged to bring costs down further...
...post-recession world, students are returning to their home cities or are looking at smaller firms...
...vote. The Prime Minister is chosen by a parliamentary majority. While the system may be designed to promote consensus, in the absence of consensus it can be a recipe for weak and unstable government. (Ironically, Israeli leaders can sympathize: their own proportional-representation system gives massively disproportionate influence to smaller parties, who claim control over ministries and their power of patronage as the price for their parliamentary votes in a ruling coalition...