National Small Business Association(NSBA) is actively lobbying Congress to mandate 25% of future bailout money go to financial help for small businesses in the form of loans. What if all of it did? What impact would that have? Everyone is talking about how entrepreneurial companies and small firms will hire all the talent and pull us out of this recession, eventually. If this is the ultimate solution, then why not put the capital behind them to accelerate the process? Here is what it would look like:

According to the Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/us_06ss.pdf , there are about 1.2 million companies with between 10 and 99 employees. If the $700 billion of bailout money was split evenly between these companies, each company would receive $600,000 in the form of loan to help them grow their business.

Assuming that all of these companies were wise stewards with this infusion of money, I think we would immediately solve two problems - liquidity would almost immediately correct and businesses would grow. If only half of them were able to re-pay their loans, then I believe we would still be money ahead in the bigger picture. While there are certainly potential flaws with this thought process, this idea also opens one of the most attractive options for turning this economy around in the most efficient and timely manner!