"This will be a very slow recovery," says Jack Kyser, founder of the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. In a telephone interview with WalletPop, Kyser said that "small- and medium-sized businesses still can't get loans from banks." It is, says Kyser, "the perfect stalemate" -- unemployment continues to rise, businesses (especially smaller ones) suffer, and banks don't want to risk lending out their money.

Only, and here's the rub as Bill Shakespeare would have said, (I'm sure the bard's closest friends called him, Bill! Don't you think?)--as we all know, the banks are sitting on piles of greenbacks that came from U.S. taxpayers. And, even the banks that are paying or have paid back the loans, were only able to turn astronomical profits this past quarter because they benefited from the government. -- make that taxpayer -- bailout!

Right now, the national unemployment rate is at 10.2% in October, a 26-year high. Add in those who are no longer looking for work or can only find part-time gigs, and that rate skyrockets beyond 17%!

As Kyser tells WalletPop, "The unemployment rate in LA County (where the housing bubble burst louder than in most parts of the U.S.) is now 12.7% and the underemployed rate is more than 20%"

Time for those apparently " too small to save" to get some of that Barack Obama "hope" we heard so much about during the campaign!