Government, Politics and the Economy Small Business Still Struggling Under Obama's Programs President Obama may have kept some of his promises to small business owners, but the credit crunch continues and it still has far too many small companies trapped in a death spiral. CNNMoney.com Romer: Stimulus Working In a recent speech, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer defended the Obama stimulus package and left the door open to a possible second stimulus. FoxBusiness.com Management and Operations [Read Full Article]

  Government, Politics and the Economy Three Things to Watch in the Second Half of '09 Halfway through the year is a good time to pause, reflect, and take inventory. We have probably survived the worst of the recession but the question is, what's next? Here are three things to keep an eye on. NYTimes.com Tyson: More Stimulus Needed According to Obama advisor Laura Tyson, the US should consider a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small.” Bloomberg.com Management and Operations [Read Full Article]

Government and Economy Obama Team to Broaden BailoutPresident-elect Barack Obama's economic team is broadening the mission of the $700 billion bailout for the financial sector, aiming to unfreeze credit for homeowners, consumers, small businesses and local governments. Frank Offers New Terms for Release of Bailout FundsRepresentative Barney Frank expects the House to act soon to impose conditions on the release of new bailout funds, mandating that at least $50 billion should be used to help avoid foreclosures. [Read Full Article]

Think of it as the psychosocial version of the global warming movement, or political correctness with a tie and a slide show, but sensitivity training, those programs that businesses use to make sure their employees have a nice, homogenous mindset about race and gender, sexuality, religion, disability and just about all the other things that could divide people who have to work together, is a growing industry in its own right. The goals of these programs are nice: examine your prejudices, look at your behavior, acknowledge the humanity of those different from you and learn to get along. There is nothing wrong with any of these things. In fact, everyone should examine their ideas and behavior, accept what is true and throw away what isn’t. Oh wait, isn’t that called growing up? I guess growing up isn’t what it used to be. Now we have to pay thousands of dollars to accomplish what our fathers used to do for free with a stern warning and slap upside the head.  [Read Full Article]