Rumor has it that one of the things of which our new President is enamored is out-of-the-box thinking that is still pragmatic, thinking fueled by data, offering fresh approaches to solving perennial problems.

As much as he may enjoy that sort of thing, I suspect that it will be easier for me to find those sorts of thinkers than it will for him — especially now that he has been officially enclosed in his very own, personalized bubble inside the Beltway Bubble.

The SBA Office of Advocacy announced last week that it had received thirty-eight nominations of burdensome regulations during the second round of its Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative. That’s quite a drop from the first round, during which there were 83 nominations - more than double this year’s turnout. That almost certainly had to [...]

It often seems that economic development goals and initiatives conflict with economic policy goals and initiatives, because the goal of developing self-sufficient, sustainable local and regional economies does not satisfy the goal of simply growing the economy. That is why, while it is impossible to develop an economy without spurring growth, it is possible to [...]

It has been kind of interesting to watch the scramble in the small business community for some sort of a nod from the incoming Obama Administration. One can cite any number of reasons for all the yelling, from the degree to which small business is starved for White House attention to the fear that the [...]

It’s cute and quaint to think of microbusinesses as nothing more than the “Mom & Pop” restaurant down the street. And many of them are precisely that. But the fact is that microbusinesses are also developing new business models, new ways of structuring businesses, new products and services, and new ways to add value to existing products and services.

Microbusinesses are cutting edge; they are leading the way into the future. If American capitalism were working properly, these should be the very last firms that have trouble accessing capital.

Over the next two weeks, the House will be considering the broad, sweeping economic recovery legislation we’ve all been hearing about since Election Day, and several House Committees have released details of the parts of the proposal that fall under their jurisdiction last week. From those slightly more detailed descriptions, it would appear that there [...]

The House Committee on Small Business kicked off the 111th Congress with a hearing last week — although, technically, it wasn’t really a hearing because, technically, the membership of the Committee has not yet been finalized — on small business, the current recession and upcoming economic stimulus legislation. A couple of themes emerged from witness [...]

The pace of growth in the population of U.S. businesses slowed significantly in 2006, according to new firm size data released by the SBA Office of Advocacy last week. After growing by approximately 4% in 2004 and 2005, the number of U.S. businesses increased by only 1.6% in 2006. And it appears from the data, [...]

Right now, America’s microbusinesses are feeling as pessimistic about the economy as everybody else, according to the results of a survey released by the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) last week. More than 70% of those surveyed indicated that the slow economy has had a significant or moderate impact on their business. In addition, [...]

If the last ten years have taught us anything, it is that both money and wealth will gravitate to themselves in much the same way that water molecules are attracted to each other.

What that means, if you’re talking about water, is that wet sponges soak up more liquid than dry sponges. If you’re talking about money and wealth, it means that full purses soak the economy more thoroughly than empty ones.

That is why the pre-occupation of the White House and Congress with economic growth, and their apparent belief that markets are sacrosanct, might best be described as misguided.