Since the 2008 financial crisis, the British government has been much more aggressive than the United States in getting the banks it bailed out to lend to small businesses. Through the Project Merlin agreement announced earlier this year, five U.K. banks agreed to 190 billion pounds of new lending to businesses in 2011, including 76 billion to small and mid-sized companies (a 15 percent increase from the previous year).
John Tozzi
Nov 172011
Earlier this year, the wonks at the Government Accountability Office looked at how much different government agencies replicate similar efforts. For example, the federal government has 80 programs that deal with economic development across four agencies.
