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. [...]

The White House is crowing about data indicating that the economy is no longer lying on its back with its legs waving and twitching in the air — and sounding remarkably like the previous Administration while they do it. Whether you want to buy the theory that Obama Administration policies have had a significant and [...]

At the risk of upsetting some people terribly, it sometimes seems difficult to tell one politician from another. It would be difficult to imagine two members of that calling who could be more different from each other than George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. But President Bush, touting the efficacy of his economic policies [...]

Late last year, the MicroEnterprise Journal reported on new research that seemed to indicate a looming housing crisis that could render hundreds of thousands of microbusiness owners homeless and their businesses dust and ashes in the near future. (See “Second Wave of Foreclosures Threatens Micros” in the December 1, 2008 issue of the Microbusiness News [...]