What's happening in small business today?
1. Is the CARD Act hurting small businesses trying to get credit? It's no secret that small business lending has clammed up since the recession started for a number of reasons, including weaker demand, a weak real estate market making it tough to get home equity lines of credit and tougher overall lending standards. But another factor may be the CARD Act, which went into effect in 2010, offering new protections for consumer credit cards (but not business cards), making many business owners shift their credit to personal cards.
While it's still unclear how much the CARD Act affected small business borrowing, it could be substantive, says Bloomberg BusinessWeek contributor Scott Shane.
