The interest rates banks charge are their income after expenses. When banks don't see an opportunity to make a reasonably-high interest rate on their money, they become less likely to take risks on loans. Businesses therefore can't borrow money for start-up and expansion expenses. Business can slow down to a crawl because there's no way to fund innovation. In addition, short-term loans to cover cash-flow problems can be hard to come by. This could cause businesses to be unable to deliver goods and services to their customers because they don't have the cash to continue operating.