Passage Summary: Banks stopped lending as much during a bad economy. Right before that happened, the rules for getting a loan got stricter. The author believes that if we loosen those rules, the lending will start back up.

Conclusion: Relaxing the regulatory standards for loanmaking will result in banks lending more money.

Reasoning: Banks decreased their lending during a recent economic downturn, and this downturn was preceded by a tightening of regulatory standards.

Analysis: This argument relies on a classic causal assumption: that because the tightening of standards happened before the decrease in lending, the standards caused the decrease. To make this conclusion necessary, the author must assume that the economic downturn itself wasn't the sole reason banks stopped lending. We need to find a link that confirms the regulations are a meaningful barrier to lending. Look for an answer that suggests the current standards are actually what is holding the banks back, rather than just a lack of funds or a lack of willing borrowers.