Recently, Mr. Bernanke was characterized as being puzzled as to whether small businesses were deprived of liquidity because banks aren’t lending or demand is simply weak.

Has Mr. Bernanke spent much time talking to the business owners who are struggling to stay afloat?  Has he spent time talking to those in the asset based financing industry who are inundated with applications by businesses who have been turned down by their banks and are desperate for cash?  Has he spent time talking to the debt negotiation firms retained to restructure unbearable debt and find a lender willing to take on a client that the bank “could not?”

No demand?  Mr. Bernanke is apparently hiding his head in the sand.

Meanwhile, big companies and banks are rebounding with record earnings and big reserves.  That will not, ultimately, help this country out of its economic mess.

Smaller firms employ roughly 60% of American workers; new smaller businesses  (less than 2 years old) are responsible for 25% of all job creation.  Together, they are expected to jump start the recovery. Paradoxically, these companies can’t get the credit needed to stay afloat, grow and create jobs.

“Making credit accessible to sound small businesses is crucial to our economic recovery,” Bernanke said.  “More must be done.”  Simply applying verbal pressure on the banks is not getting it done.

While some banks are showing signs loosening up of their own volition, it will require both creative and pragmatic solutions quickly passed and enacted on the Federal level for others to follow suit.

In the meantime, Mr. Bernanke, perhaps demand is down because the bank isn’t supplying.