Master Hatters Struggling in Lone Star State

As part of our series "The Kitchen Table," "World News" will spend considerable time in the coming months with a family in Seattle, a small businessman in Garland, Texas, and local officials in Brockton, Mass., to get a firsthand look at the different ways each is coping with the recession and preparing for the challenges ahead. ABC News’ Brian Wheeler reports: Hey from Garland, TX, where I’m embedded with cowboy hat maker Jerry Cook at Master Hatters of Texas. The business has been in the family 41 years, but this past year has been one of the toughest. Jerry had to let about a third of his workforce go after his largest retailer went out of business, and his bank won’t give him another loan. So basically they live hat-to-hat at the moment. The good news for now is that hats are flying out of the warehouse, as retailers replace their wool and fur felt hats with the straw hats popular in the spring and summer. Once that transition is complete business will probably slow down. Jerry could really use a new loan by then to put a little safety net under himself. Monday brought word from the White House that the Small Business Administration would now guarantee 90 percent of bank loans made to small business through the SBA. Banks are not lending to Jerry and business owners like him, scared of exposing themselves to more risk in a down economy.  Jerry has been trying for an SBA loan since October and told me he’ll try again now. I guess we’ll see how much the Obama administration’s guarantee works to get credit flowing. One last tidbit from Texas: three guys showed up looking for work today and all had to be turned away, another indication that times are tough for American manufacturers and their employees.