On Saturday night I got to share some thoughts with a group of folks in Mt. Airy, North Carolina which was the inspiration for the town of Mayberry on the "Andy Griffith Show" the same way Boston's Bull & Finch Pub was the inspiration for the bar in the TV show "Cheers."
Saturday happened to have been the last day of "Mayberry Days" which includes many, many sidewalk sales; many, many tour buses which have unloaded many, many people; and the constant sound of the theme song from the show playing from speakers around Main Street.
One quick story: I walked into Page's Bookstore. There was a sign on one shelf which read: "Goober is out of print. Get your's before they are all gone."
Alas, I was too late. All the Goober books were, in fact, all gone.
The event was in the auditorium at the Mt. Airy High School, which is located - this is true - on North South Street (surprise, surprise, surprise).
I spent some time talking about the notion of how the Federal government, once they get their arms around our physical security, will deal with the nation's economic security.
The airlines have gotten a big chunk of money to keep that industry alive. The insurance folks have been working the Hill, but there seems to be less sympathy for them: Risk management is what they do for a living. Other major industries will make their case for increased funding; decreased taxes; or some combination of the two.
It is in our nature to consider these issues in terms of industry segments. Think about a bar chart with the bars in a vertical orientation.
One bar is the Airline industry. Another bar is the hospitality industry. A third bar is the financial industry. The next bar might represent Big Labor. Still another Big Agriculture. And so on. There might be a thousand bars on our imaginary chart.
The government tends to move these bars around as first one, then another has the Congressional or Administration spotlight trained upon it.
Let's continue this mind experiment by drawing three horizontal lines through the vertical bars. The space between the first bar and the top of the chart represents the Big Players: The airlines; the major agribusiness firms; the major hotel chains, etc.
The middle space, twice as big as the first space, represents, as you might expect, the second-tier players in each of these industries: The major fuel providers to the airlines; the principal trucking companies that move food products; and the big hotel management companies.
The bottom space, twice as big as the mid-level space, represents small businesses. All small businesses. The company which runs the parking concession at the airport; or the farm implement dealer; or the company which provides the clean linens to the restaurant.
These are the companies which are suffering right now, and will continue to suffer until the economy recovers or they go out of business whichever comes first.
With the cost of debt capital very low right now - and perhaps going lower depending upon whether Mr. Greenspan thinks a deepening recession is more dangerous than potential inflation - the U.S. Government should provide low- or no-interest loans to the hundreds of thousands of small businesses for whom the notion of strategic planning starts and ends with making payroll.
If there were a flood in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, FEMA and the SBA would be there with highly trained, highly visible specialists to help small business owners get through the emergency.
The September Eleventh terrorist attacks created, for small business people, a nation-wide emergency and the SBA should respond accordingly.
The Administration should immediately ask Congress to increase funding sufficient to allow the SBA to send specialists into Mt. Airy and all the Mt. Airys across the country; to take space in empty down-town store fronts, like the one across Main Street from the Snappy Lunch; to have SBA specialists walk around in blue windbreakers with the letters "SBA" in bright yellow across the back so that local owners would know who to look for to save their businesses.
An emergency program specifically aimed at helping small businesses weather this economic storm might mean that loans in the billions of dollars will have to be extended.
Here's what we know about small business owners: If we help the small business men and women of America now, they will pay us back. With interest.
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