We have committed more than $8 trillion to bailing out banks, but one common lament, from many business owners and prospective homeowners, is that the very same banks are reluctant to make loans. We need to modernize existing laws and enact some new ones in order to restore flows of credit.

One immediate remedy is the CRA Modernization Act of 2009. This proposed law would strengthen the existing Community Reinvestment Act to make it more effective and expand CRA's purview to financial institutions other than banks.