Article: Throwing small businesses a life preserver.

That gleaming speckle of black in an ocean of red ink is tough to find when the bank is ready to toss you overboard.

And in a world where small businesses must swim fast or go under, Robert Baker knows some companies just aren't worth saving.

For those that are, this high-wire lender is often a last resort.

"We bet on management, rather than collateral," says Baker, who runs the Economic Stabilization Trust, a quasi-public loan fund started in 1984 by the Legislature. "We try to figure out what's wrong, and how to right it."

Nearly 70 Bay State companies trying to spit out the taste of ruin are still floating on $10 million worth of ...

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