The Recovery, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny

Be honest. Did you ever buy all that talk about economic recovery? We didn’t. Because we never saw any firsthand evidence. According to a new survey, titled “Wall Street Learns What Main Street Knew All Along,” neither did the majority of Americans.

In the survey, which was done by some business-research firm called Raddon Financial Group, 62 percent of respondents said they see no sign the recession has ended and 23 percent think it will get worse. Fifty-nine percent said they don’t anticipate their financial situation improving in the next six months, and 15 percent think it will deteriorate.

“With a majority of U.S. households saying they see no evidence the recession is over, I sometimes wonder if Wall Street and Main Street are living in the same universe,” said Louis Hernandez Jr., CEO of Raddon parent company Open Solutions, Inc.

We’ve got a news flash for Louis: Wall Street and Main Street moved to different universes years ago. Wall Street lives in that nice universe with the big houses and the shiny import sedans. The rest of us live in a black hole. And if you’re a small-business owner, that’s the survey takeaway that matters.

Half of respondents said they’ve suffered a job loss, a cut in hours, and/or a cut in pay. Over half said they’re spending less this year than last year. “High unemployment and economic uncertainty have ushered in a period of fear and frugality, and small businesses are feeling the impact,” reads the survey summary, which goes on to say that the majority of small businesses polled predict sales this year to be as bad or worse than last year.

Does the downturn have an upside? The only silver lining in the above-described survey is what it reveals about Americans’ sentiment toward banks. Half of respondents said they’re now less likely to use a big bank and pleased with the help they’ve gotten from small banks during hard times. The majority said their community bank or credit union has been “extremely or somewhat supportive” during the recession.

Louis Hernandez, the guy who commissioned the survey, has picked up on that trend and is trying to start a movement. He’s written a book called “Too Small to Fail: How the Financial Industry Crisis Changed the World’s Perceptions” and in it he argues that small banks can take the financial industry back to a time when banks knew their place: serving consumers, not serving champagne and canapes to their rich neighbors at garden parties in the Hamptons.

“Now’s the time for leaders of community institutions to seize the day,” he asks community bankers on the Facebook page dedicated to his campaign. “Do you have the extraordinary drive it will take to inspire the industry and bring financial institutions back to their place as trusted intermediaries?”

It’s a nice thought. But a little quaint. These days, any small bank that starts doing what Hernandez suggests -- doing well by doing good -- just gets swallowed by some profit-hungry big bank.

IBM offers $1 billion. Need to buy some technology? Don’t talk to your bank. Try IBM. It recently announced it’s making available $1 billion in financing for small businesses that want to buy technology in the next 18 months.

It’s pushing new IBM tools for analytics and the cloud, offering lease and loan deals that are simple and flexible -- and approved in 60 seconds for qualified customers. Some start at as low as 0 percent for 12 months with nothing down.

A lot of IBM’s revenue comes from small-business customers, so it’s obviously in the interest of the megacorporation to help out the little guy. But still, not a bad offer if you need some new technology now.

(We could use a new laptop and an IBM kegerator.)

Follow Tim and Tom on Twitter @timntom.