Mike, you're right about lending problems, but if you look a little deeper, you'll find dodfrank. The small banks are scared to death - nobody knows how to follow the law, but they know there is heavy sanctions if some bureaucrat decides you voted for the wrong guy. Most bankers are intimidated to openly discuss the situation. How's that for freedom.
It was the huge banks that were involved in credit default swaps (at the direction of the govt), but the Main Street banks are paying for it.
Ok, here is my tinfoil hat analysis. What do all socialists crave? Where do all socialists begin the revolution? Socialists target banks. Look what they did to student loans - federalized them. Fanny and Freddy were the worst banking actors - they get secret bailouts. So government mandates resulted in a housing bubble that hit some banks hard - the response, cripple small banks.