Last week, the SBA Office of Advocacy released the latest in its series of Quarterly Indicators briefs, this time reporting on the fourth quarter of 2009. So, now, I get to throw a bunch of numbers at you, the good news being that there will not be a quiz when I’m done. The Commerce Department [...]

When the financial markets collapsed and small business lending froze, one set of heroes of the day was the nation’s microlenders. In response, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included enough money to support $50 million in microloans, an unprecedented infusion of funding for the federal government. Unfortunately, microfinance organizations recently seem to be facing [...]

Nobody is doing the happy dance exactly but there are some rather more cheerful noises coming from hither and yon with respect to economic prospects in the near term. Economy watchers don’t expect a return to truly robust growth but, after what the U.S. economy endured during 2009, any sort of growth is welcome. So, [...]

It’s the start of a new year and everybody in the small business community seemed infused with a new sense of optimism. But that faith in economic good things to come took something of a hit when we learned that the economy lost another 68,000 jobs in December. Of course, some where less surprised by [...]

Over the whole of 2009, we have heard quite a lot about how members of Congress know that small businesses are “the engine of the economy” and “the key to economic recovery.” We have also watched while a lot of the legislative activity throughout the year did not seem to match the rhetoric. We can [...]

Payroll employment declined by 11,000 in November and the unemployment rate edged down slightly, to 10.0%. It’s a sign of the times that the news was greeted with a certain amount of relief and cautious optimism in certain quarters in Washington. But while the politicians are sniping among themselves about whether or not the decline [...]

The President is in Asia at the moment, doing unheard-of but very American things like holding town hall meetings in China and bringing his very own Obama-ness to the Pacific Rim. Of much more concern to us is the fact that, just before he left, he announced that he would be holding a forum on [...]

All things considered, reaction to the news that the economy grew 3.5% during the third quarter of this year was greeted with relatively little fanfare. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the sudden spike in gross domestic product is the fact that it primarily reflects a sizable increase in personal consumption, which is explained, in [...]

A new proposal that may provide an interesting new twist on a standard economic development practice, the Rural and Small Town Telework Tax Credit Act of 2009 (H.R. 3627), was introduced by freshman Congressman Thomas Periello (D-VA) late last month. The bill does pretty much just what it says in its refreshingly straightforward title. It [...]

Oversight hearings, which fell out of fashion during most of the Bush Administration, came roaring back when Democrats took over Congress in 2006. In fact, there were those who thought said Democrats would use said oversight hearings to exact their revenge against Republicans for nameless partisan crimes and misdemeanors. That didn’t happen, of course. Mr. [...]