Shakespeare may have written “neither a borrower nor a lender be.” But that’s only because he didn’t live long enough to see the rise of peer-to-peer lending.

Reuters reports that the former Chief Executive of Morgan Stanley, John Mack, has joined the board of Lending Club Corp, a peer-to-peer lending website. It’s a big sign of confidence in peer-to-peer lending from the man once known as Mack the Knife for his relentless cost cutting when he led Morgan Stanley.

Peer-to-peer lending, which uses the power of the Internet to directly match lenders and borrowers, has been a crucial source of credit since the financial collapse, particularly for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Lending Club, for example, has already lent $589 million since it launched in 2007, and has generated $51 million of interest for investors. For small business owners, Lending Club offers loans of up to $35,000 at a lower rate than most banks typically offer. Prosper, which was the country’s first peer-to-peer lending site when it launched in 2006, offers business owners up to $25,000 at generous rates.

It’s not only the U.S. that’s embracing peer-to-peer lending. According to the Financial Times, “the peer-to-peer model is also gaining traction in Germany and China, which has an estimated 100 lending sites.” And it’s little wonder: peer-to-peer lending has been a crucial source of credit ever since the big banks have tightened their belts.

As for silly old Polonius, the character who actually said “neither a borrower nor a lender be?” He ended up getting stabbed to death by Hamlet. We think you’ll find a happier ending.

You may have missed it among the squabbles, food fights, fencing matches, duels, and partisan demolition derbies that characterize contemporary Washington, but guess what: a bipartisan bill was just signed by President Obama! Dubbed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (that is, the JOBS Act—get it?), the legislation is great news for American entrepreneurs.

So, aside from a pun of questionable quality, what’s actually in the JOBS Act? “The JOBS Act is a collection of six measures that its backers say would make it easier for companies to go public more quickly and raise money,” says Politico.

Those measures include rule changes that “allow small businesses to use ads to solicit investors and permit more companies making public offerings to opt out of SEC rules. ” Perhaps most importantly, however, the new law makes it much easier to “crowdfund”—i.e. to raise money from a large number of people on the Internet. Thanks to the JOBS Act, entrepreneurs are now able to raise up to $1 million annually through crowdfunding, without triggering any SEC registration or filing requirements. Another important component is a measure pertaining to capital expansion. According to business strategist Carol Roth, the law “increases the number of shareholders that can invest in a community bank without having to comply with extra regulation… [this makes] more capital available for community banks… [and results in] trickle down into the local small business economy.” The new law also makes it easier for start-ups to stay private for longer and makes it cheaper for them when they want to go public.

In sum, as Amy M. Wilkinson, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School sees it, “the bill makes it easier for startups to raise money, to stay private when they need to and to go public when the time is right.”

Of course, the JOBS act isn’t going to raise your funds for you. For that, you’re going to need an excellent business plan—preferably a MasterPlan. Nonetheless, in an effort to save their own jobs, Congress and the president have just made it a heck of a lot easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital. Good JOBS all around!