Why should small business owners and their employees care about the recall election in Wisconsin or local elections in California? The key reason: The failure to remove Gov. Scott Walker constitutes a significant failure for government labor unions. Those labor unions didn’t like the fact that Walker carried through on his campaign promises to limit […]
In its latest economic outlook, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects further economic underperformance in the U.S. and other developing nations. While the global economy is “gaining momentum,” the OECD warns “the recovery is fragile, extremely uneven across different regions. The group forecasts Europe will barely grow at 0.1 percent in 2012 and […]
We’re more than seven months through the current fiscal year. Is anything really changing after the massive increases in federal spending over the past few years? Unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, the answer is no. Keep in mind that federal outlays from 2007 to 2011 jumped by 32 percent — from $2.73 trillion to $3.6 trillion. Due […]
It’s hard to be both an entrepreneur and pessimist. Entrepreneurship really requires optimism. Of course, that optimism must be rooted in reality. Consequently, it’s been tough to be an entrepreneur in recent years, not to mention an economist for a small business advocacy group. After all, you long to remain optimistic about the economy, but […]
After four-plus years of a deep recession and poor recovery, there are those who can become excited when the economy merely muddles along at a below-average rate of growth. That seems to be the case with some in their reaction to the recent release of the Federal Reserve Beige Book. The information gathered from the […]
Apparently, President Barack Obama didn’t like how the arguments over his massive health care measure went before the Supreme Court. Obama not only came out swinging against the court, but also questioned the court’s role in our system of checks and balances. It was an unprecedented attack from a president of the United States. For […]
It’s been a long, hard slog on the economy and jobs for more than four years now. But the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows life on the employment front. According to the establishment survey, payrolls increased by 227,000 in February. That was the third straight month of job gains that […]
Taxes always rank as major costs and big concerns for entrepreneurs, businesses and investors. But that’s even more so the case now given imposed, scheduled and proposed tax increases under President Barack Obama. There’s the possibility of even more tax hikes not too far down the road given the four-plus-year unprecedented explosion in federal spending […]
Where is federal government spending headed? It seems like everyone wants to know, though for different reasons. Some mistakenly believe that big government is somehow good for the economy — or at least good for their efforts to get re-elected. Others, with a better understanding of how the economy actually works, remain concerned federal spending […]
So, what happened to small business? In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama offered no direct, substantive remarks about small business. That, of course, is a striking omission given the central role entrepreneurial firms play in terms of innovation, economic growth and job creation. However, the president did touch on some issues […]