SmallBusinessNewz

American small business owners should finally be finding it a little easier to receive loans from banks.  The Federal Reserve Board determined that lending conditions improved in July, marking the end - or at least the interruption - of a long drought.

As explained in the July 2010 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices, "[T]his is the first survey that has shown an easing of standards on C&I loans to small firms since late 2006."

And to be more specific, the report later explained, "[A]round one-fifth of large domestic banks reported having eased lending standards for small firms, which offset a net tightening of standards by a small fraction of other banks."

Not bad, right?  Now we just have to wait for this trend to catch on.

There's probably good news in that respect, too, since it seems that the large banks should act as trendsetters.  And the average small business owner doesn't appear to feel there's a rush, as the Federal Reserve Board found that demand for loans hasn't changed much in recent months.

One more nice (though largely unrelated) piece of information: the Dow's up 1.65 percent at the moment, possibly pointing to an economic recovery.