By Jason Miller; Federal News Radio The Small Business Administration confirmed that Grande Lum will be the new director of the Historically Underutilized Business Zone program. And Lum, a law professor and founder of Accordence, a consultancy that provides negotiations, conflict management and persuasion and influence services, is walking into a program plagued with problems. A… Read more »

By Grace Gagliano; Bradenton Herald Unemployment tax, health care and job creation are weighing heavily on the minds of small businesses in Manatee and Sarasota counties. Congressman Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, held a joint meeting Monday with members of the Manatee and Sarasota chambers of commerce. His message to them about the federal budget was one they’ve heard for quite a… Read more »

By Emily Maltby; Wall Street Journal Behind the credit squeeze on small business lies the collateral gap. Many small businesses, thwarted in efforts to get loans, are saying it takes money to get money. That's because property and equipment assets have fallen in value, so businesses seeking loans are being asked for alternative collateral, often in the form of cash so that the loan is… Read more »

 Wall Street Journal Presidents typically invite Americans to appear at Rose Garden press conferences to trumpet their policy successes, but yesterday we saw what may have been a first. President Obama introduced three Americans—an auto worker, a fitness center employee and a woman in real estate—who've been out of work so long they underscore the failure of his economic program. Where… Read more »

Washington, D.C., July 16th - Dear Friends: Earlier this week, the Obama Administration released a report claiming that the trillion-dollar stimulus has “saved or created” between 2.5 and 3.6 million jobs since it was signed into law in February of 2009.  However, this report belies the fact that the unemployment rate has risen from 7.6 percent to nearly 10 percent in that time period,… Read more »

By Gene Marks; Bloomberg Business Week I don't have much in common with my friend Rob. Rob (I'm changing his name here so he won't yell at me) owns a 60-employee roofing company near me in Oreland, Pa. I run a 10-person information technology consulting firm. Rob has tattoos snaking up both of his arms. I have a mosquito bite on my left shin. Rob spends his days outside, in all… Read more »

By Tom Barkley; Wall Street Journal Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged banks and regulators Monday to seek out ways to ensure that small businesses get the credit they need to create jobs. “Making credit accessible to sound small businesses is crucial to our economic recovery and so should be front and center among our current policy challenges,” Bernanke said in prepared… Read more »

By Jay Heflin; The Hill National Taxpayer Advocate Pam Olson on Wednesday raised concern in a report to Congress about requiring businesses to document most of its purchases to the IRS. To improve tax compliance, the recently enacted health reform bill mandates purchases of $600 or more by businesses, tax-exempt organizations, or federal, state and local governments be submitted to… Read more »

By Ken Newton; St. Joe News Press President Obama said it would "put an end to the idea that any financial firm is too big to fail." Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves countered that it ignores the voice of the entrepreneur. The comments marked the range of sentiments expressed after the U.S. House approved financial reform legislation on Wednesday. The chamber passed the Wall… Read more »

By Diane Stafford; Kansas City Star The argument over whether more government stimulus is needed to spark the economy intensified Friday with an anemic jobs report. While the unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent in June from 9.7 percent in May, the decline occurred not because employers added jobs but because a huge number of workers — 650,000 — dropped out of the labor force.… Read more »