The Bernanke Cycle
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker
“Eighty-one percent of the jobs lost in America were from small business,”
-Senator Mary L. Landrieu, (D) Louisiana and chairwoman of the small-business committee
One of my pet topics here is the utter neglect of small businesses, which have been completely ignored during the race to stimulate and reflate The Systemic Six banks. In a press release from something called Industry Source Network, this systemic neglect is given a name – The Bernanke Cycle…
The Bernanke Cycle works as follows:
1. Small business gets battered by the economy. The business is still profitable but less so than before.
2. The business sees its lending facility pared back or eliminated by their bank.
3. Small business cuts jobs, moves to a smaller building or stops future equipment orders so that their expenses reflect the reality of their new lower revenues.
4. These cuts also negatively impact other small businesses associated with the small business’ supply chain which gives the cycle a multiplier effect.
5. Small business owner takes their austerity program to their lender in hopes of restoring some of their lost borrowing capabilities. The lender looks at the lower revenues, layoffs and downsizing as a further deterioration of the business. The lender lowers the business’s line of credit even further.
6. The business now has to run on even less cash and is not able to replenish inventory at the levels needed to grow its business.
7. Go back to step 1 and repeat until the business becomes truly uncreditworthy and eventually becomes insolvent.
I couldn’t agree more, and I see very little being done to help, either nominally or tactically.
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