CIT faces the prospect of bankruptcy

The US government has not underwritten borrowing by CIT (CIT) and now the company faces a cash shortage which could push it into Chapter 11. If the government looks more closely at CIT's core business, it may decide it should come to the financial firm's rescue.

According toThe Wall Street Journal, CIT is "a lender to almost a million mostly small and midsize businesses across the country." While it is not clear whether any of these loans would be affected by a bankruptcy, firms of this size employ well over half of American of the American working population and access to capital is critical to their ability to keep current payroll levels.