Is support for £20bn of loans enough?

What does Lord Mandelson's announcement about loans for businesses mean?
It represents an acknowledgement that the problem is not just the lack of lending, but the lack of something called trade credit insurance, where a business takes out an insurance policy that it can claim on if a customer fails to pay for goods the business has supplied.
If a business has this insurance then any bank that lends it money to help make those goods knows there is less risk of its money being lost if the borrower doesn't get paid.
Trade credit insurance used to be easily and cheaply available in the good times. In a downturn caused by a lack of money it has become scarce and expensive. It was the refusal to grant insurance to Woolworths' suppliers that crippled the store chain, which ran out of cash because they refused to let it buy stock on credit.
Let's clear up one thing first: today's announcement won't give money to small firms. It is aimed at medium to large businesses with a turnover (annual sales) in the tens of millions and above.
The Government has targeted these businesses with good reason: they employ more people, have the potential to grow, and often have a chain of suppliers made up of those small companies. They account for half the sales in the UK economy.
So they are a crucial part of the business landscape.
The Government has pledged to insure up to £20 billion worth of loans to these medium to large companies (for the fine detail, see this FT story), but some observers wonder why the scheme is so complex and whether it's enough.
Let's not be churlish: anything that helps unblock one of the key sticking points in the business lending system has to be applauded.
But there is a mountain to climb here: this week's economic survey from Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce painted a very bleak picture indeed of business conditions. Much, much more needs to be done.
Next week, Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, and he is set to throw the financial equivalent of a nuclear missile at the problems in the American economy.
Business leaders will be hoping Gordon Brown follows in his footsteps