Microbusiness News Briefs Podcast

Micros Say No Mandates, Frown On Public Option

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:24:36 +0000

I am happy because new microbusiness firm size data always makes me happy.

In fact, if you’re a Journal Blog reader, you may possibly remember my lament about having to wait for these numbers. Well, the wait is over.

If you don’t feel like waiting, I’ll tell you that nonemployers increased in number by almost a million in 2007, up 4.5%. For the rest, you’ll have to listen to the podcast.

The other item majorly on the agenda this week is health care reform. There are a few things I have to say about that in this week’s podcast and I’m going to say a few more things here.

First, be aware that I am not necessarily arguing in favor of the public option. Personally, I think that everybody who is engaged in the health care reform debate is barking up the wrong tree, principally because none of them seems able to travel very far outside ideas and concepts they are used to.

I’ve been saying for years that we need to separate the ideas of health care and health insurance. You can tell that we haven’t because of the way people object to public insurance by saying they don’t want the government in charge of their heath care.

(Hint: You are in charge of your health care. Unless you are incarcerated, that doesn’t change - no matter what happens to the system.)

What I am seeing here is a bunch of public option opponents (bankrolled, I suspect, largely by the insurance industry) scaring people into thinking it would be terrible if the government treated them exactly the way health insurance companies treat them now.

Go figure.

Use your head, people. That’s all I ask.

For more information:

Signs of Economic Recovery Abound

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:12:47 +0000

There’s an awful lot of pain out there still, so that my headline seem like a case of overstating the positives.

But there are quite a few very positive signs out there, signs that improvements are coming even if they are not already here. It’s a bit like that tickle you get in the back of you throat that lets you know you’re in the process of catching a cold, if you see what I mean …

This week’s news also sees the first of this summer’s Microbusiness Profiles, and what could be better than a woman with the courage to launch a business only six months after the financial markets collapsed? I really enjoyed my conversation with Gladys Strickland and, from the MNB trivia files, you may be interested to know that we found each other via Twitter.

I’m getting more and more concerned the more I watch the SBA come back to life under the Obama Administration. If I am to judge him by his appointments, his tenure in the White House may not bode well for microbusinesses. The jury is still out but the writing on the wall is looking ominous.

How’s that for a set of frighteningly mixed metaphors?

For more information:

The Conference Board
Bureau of Labor Statistics
National Federation of Independent Business
National Association of Credit Management
GS Business Resources
SBA Office of Advocacy

SBA Reauthorizaion Begins in the Senate

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:26:54 +0000

In spite of the fact that our new President marched triumphantly into the White House on euphoric waves of his Change mantra, there is a disconcerting sameness about Congress and its dealings with small business issues.

In fairness, some things have changed. For example, the rancid partisanship that had infected both the Small Business Committees during the tenure of President Bush seem to have fallen by the wayside — and that in spite of the fact that the relatively moderate Don Manzullo and the relatively reasonable Steve Chabot have been replaced by the rabidly partisan Sam Graves as top Republican on the House Small Business Committee.

All of which makes it more pleasant to watch the doings of said committees … as they take care of last century’s business.

Of course, some things just need to be done (like SBA reauthorization) but there isn’t much happening on Capitol Hill right now that reflects the new ways of doing business that are happening every day out here in the real world.

Then again, some would it’s good that Congress is behind the curve. It keeps the lawmakers from sticking their noses into what we’re doing and messing it up for us.

For more information:

Unconventional Thinkers: Paul Glover

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:49:09 +0000

As advertised, here is my interview with Paul Glover.

This was a really fascinating conversation (if I can channel Mr. Spock for a few minutes) and I’ll be interested to see how Glover’s vision plays out over the next few years. He had a tremendous success with his work in Ithaca, to be sure. But Philadelphia is a much, much bigger place and it is always hard to get people in large cities all moving in the same direction.

But I certainly wish him much success. The city could use it.

Speaking of fascinating, I also discovered that Paul Glover and I are connected across places in several ways. After all the work he did in Ithaca, Paul seemed both amused and fondly nostalgic when I told him that my daughter would soon be entering her junior year at Ithaca College.

And, of course, he is currently aiming to work his magic on a place of which I am fondly nostalgic, since I grew up there.

How about that, huh?

For more information:

Health Care Concensus Emerges Against Mandates

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:45:34 +0000

This summer is going to be a fairly amazing ride. President Obama has declared that he would like both chambers of Congress to vote on health care reform legislation before heading home for the August recess.

Considering the scope of that little project, it’ll be a bit of a miracle if they get it done in less than two months (on schedule). House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has said that he expects the House to vote on that and an energy bill by that August recess deadline.

Personally, I think he’s nuts but I wouldn’t want to burst his bubble.

I found my conversation with Paul Glover to be a fascinating exercise into just what is possible when you think way, way, way outside the box.

Just think: if our current system of currency and exchange isn’t working for you, invent one of your own! Why not?

Now that’s what ya call testicular fortitude!

For more information:

Predicted ‘Wave’ of Microbiz Foreclosures Not Showing Yet

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:31:37 +0000

I’m feeling very brave and daring, and I’m fully expecting to receive a vehement message from Dr. Bornstein in the comments here or over at The Journal Blog. Dr. Bornstein is a very smart man who has an important message to deliver.

Unfortunately, he fails to demonstrate convincingly why anybody should care more about foreclosures among small business owners than among everybody else for two very salient reasons:

(1) There is no real need to assume that homeless small business owners will necessarily close their businesses, unless they operate home-based businesses (and if they do, the odds are that they have no employees anyway); and

(2) It is not what I would call politically savvy to behave as if one set of homeless citizens matters more than another set of homeless citizens — even if, from a practical point of view, they do.

Fortunately, anything that Congress or the Obama Administration does to address the foreclosure crisis in general will be available to small business owners in particular. So, assuming that stuff will work to keep people in their homes, Dr. Bornstein might perhaps be able to relax a little and take some time off for fly fishing or something.

For more information:

Previous MNB coverage: Second Wave of Foreclosures Threatens Micros
Press Release: New Study Shows 2.1 Million California Small Business Jobs Will Be Lost
Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
SBA Office of Advocacy

Senate Committee Looks Into Alternative Financing

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:28:27 +0000

Happy Small Business Week!

This weekly ritual small business groveling that emerges from Washington every year is always a time of profound irony for me. It’s tough to take policy makers seriously when they spout off about the manifold wonderfulnesses of small businesses, when the actual economic policies they craft say something very different.

Or, to put it another way, if I had a choice between $787 billion and a proclamation from President Obama about how wonderful I am, I’d take the money. In a heartbeat.

There is good news for microbusinesses coming out of the Senate Small Business Committee, in the form of the open-mindedness of Chairwoman Mary Landrieu. Every time I have an opportunity to watch her in that capacity, she sounds as if she is prepared to do things differently, to seek alternatives when programs and services are not reaching segments of their target populations, to listen to innovative ways to get things done.

All of which is very encouraging. Granted, it’s not the first time I’ve heard stuff that seemed encouraging coming from the lips of lawmakers and I am usually disappointed. So, the jury is still out on Landrieu but … it does look promising.

For more information

Health Care Reform For Real This Time?

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:12:53 +0000

My kids have been telling me for years that I’m a goddess and I think I must have let it go to my head.

That’s the best I can come up with for an explanation as to why I would have imagined I could have had two admittedly minor surgical procedures within the space of one week and think I didn’t need to build time into my schedule to recover.

When you do things like that, though, your body sort of lets you know in its own inimitable fashion that you had better slow down. And just when you thought you could still get everything done without interruption, you find that you can get nothing done.

That’ll teach ya.

So, now that I’m more or less back, it seems there is much derring do in the Capitol Hill Political Theater. There’s health care and global climate change and small business research (which, as usual, is the most interesting of all as far as I am concerned).

Sorry about that brief, unintentional vacation. I’ll try not to let it happen again.

For more information

Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Senate Committee on Finance
HealthReform.gov
House Committee on Small Business
SBA Office of Advocacy

Will Obama Blow It With Small Businesses?

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:30:34 +0000

The song of the angry not-so-young microbusiness owner has been a recurring theme here at the MicroEnterprise Journal/Microbusiness News Briefs for a few weeks now.

There’s a reason for that.

It seems that the more time that goes by, the angrier those microbusiness owners get. It’s not that we don’t understand about all those jobs, etc., etc. It is simply that we don’t agree that such is a good reason to spend all that money saving businesses that, frankly, don’t deserve to be saved.

There were other options for handling the situation.

Congress returns from recess today, which makes me very happy. Already, there is a hearing scheduled on Wednesday that I think will interest you. And besides, if the lawmakers are back in Washington, that simply increases the chances that I’ll find things to complain about.

It’s what I live for.

For more information:

House Small Business Committee: “IRS Oversight: Are Tax Compliance Costs Slowing the Economic Recovery?” (Hearing Archive)
Federal Reserve Board: Senior Loan Office Opinion Survey, January 2009
The Conference Board
Government Accountability Office:
Small Business Administration’s Implementation of Administrative Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF)

Self-Employment May Do What Card Check Won’t

editor@microbusinessnewsbriefs.com (Dawn Rivers Baker) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:07:28 +0000

We’ve got a slightly truncated edition of the podcast (and newsletter) this week, largely because there just wasn’t that much news fit to report last week. In fact, this week’s news report consists of items that happened last month but that I wasn’t able to get to before now.

Let’s hear it for evergreen stories.

Truth to tell, it wouldn’t be accurate to call these evergreen stories. They are a couple of heavy hitters, which is the primary reason why I thought it made sense not to search too hard for a bit of fluff to insert as my third article. It’s not really necessary.

Heavy hitters = the Employee Free Choice Act and the tax gap. ‘Nuff said.

For more information:

Hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, “Rebuilding Economic Security: Empowering Workers To Restore The Middle Class” (Hearing Archive)
Peter Orzag, OMB Director, Transcript of 3/25 Teleconference with Press (PDF)
National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE)