Wall St Journal - "banks tightening access to credit"

"As the (USA) recovery splutters, bankers are expecting the credit crunch for smaller firms to get worse before getting any better" reports a July 2011 survey of 272 risk managers across America. 74% of those surveyed expected an increase in demand for credit amongst small business, but only 46% expected credit extended to this sector to increase.

Clearly this adds to the large amount of evidence that middle America is a long way from back to prosperity. With the nations well known deficit problems and unemployment at double digit levels, it's not really surprising that the US currency is so weak.

The US economic recovery has worldwide implications. While they struggle to find sustained growth we all feel some pain.

Here in New Zealand we could claim to be prospering by comparison – well almost! Maybe a victory at Eden Park on October 23 will be just the catalyst for a sustained recovery. No pressure Ritchie!

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