Government, Politics and the Economy The People's Stimulus It's not what Congress or the President had in mind, but towns are using $2 bills and "buy local" promotions to launch their own stimulus efforts to keep local merchants in business. CNNMoney.com Obama and the Entrepreneur: The Story Behind the Photo When President Obama made his way out of a town-hall event, there was one persistent small business owner pressed him on the issue of taxes. NYTimes.com [Read Full Article]

ABC Online and On Your Side EZlocal.com Gets a Redesign EZlocal.com recently got a redesign. More members are seeing their business on the site as a Featured Listing on the local homepages, search results and more! If you're a paid ABC member you can login to add coupons, images and detailed descriptions to drive even more traffic to your business. Government, Politics and the Economy Velazquez: Reduce the Burden on Small Business House Committee on Small Business chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), is asking for changes in the healthcare reform legislation being developed that would reduce the tax burden on small businesses. WebCPA.com [Read Full Article]

Healthcare reform—that thousand-plus page monster that, according to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), is pointless to read—is going to have a great and terrible impact on entrepreneurs and from that epicenter on their businesses, their employees and the economy as a whole. According to Columbia business professor Rita McGrath, the reason for this is that entrepreneurs will change the way they do things, not so much to thrive but to cope. She writes that “the plan currently being sped along by the House Democrats is going to fundamentally alter what [economist William J.] Baumol called the ‘structure of incentives’ that shape how entrepreneurs allocate their energies.”   The Structure of Incentives What are these incentives? They are the things that make going into a particular business worthwhile. According to an articl... [Read Full Article]

ABC Online and On Your Side EZlocal.com Gets a Redesign EZlocal.com recently got a redesign. More members are seeing their business on the site as a Featured Listing on the local homepages, search results and more! If you're a paid ABC member you can login to add coupons, images and detailed descriptions to drive even more traffic to your business. Government, Politics and the Economy Durable Goods Orders, Excluding Cars and Planes, Unexpectedly Rise Excluding cars and aircraft, new orders for US durable goods rose unexpectedly in June, a signal that manufacturing may expand in the second half of the year. Bloomberg.com Management and Operations... [Read Full Article]

  Government, Politics and the Economy SBA's Karen Mills on How She's Thawing Small Business Credit SBA Administrator Karen Mills discusses how her agency is working to get banks to lend to small business again. BusinessWeek.com Polls, Politics and the Small Business Majority Do the Small Business Majority's Polls really indicate support for requiring employers to provide healthcare or pay the penalty? We don't know and here's why. NYTimes.com [Read Full Article]

  Government, Politics and the Economy How Should Government Encourage Small Business Innovation? Within Congress, there are two visions of how the government should harness the power of small firms to innovate that need to be reconciled, visions that pit bootstrapped companies against venture-backed companies. NYTimes.com Consumer Sentiment Posts First Drop Since February Confidence among American consumers dropped in July, the first time in five months, as mounting unemployment and depressed wages battered households. Bloomberg.com [Read Full Article]

  Government, Politics and the Economy Obama Supports Bank Fees for Risk and Wealth Surtax for Healthcare President Obama signaled his support for a proposal to impose fees on some of the nation’s largest financial firms to cover losses from risky transactions and avert another market meltdown. He also said that a surtax on the wealthy fits with his ideas on paying for healthcare. Bloomberg.com GOP Financial Services Overhaul Republicans have developed their own version of legislation aimed at overhauling regulations of the financial-services industry. The GOP version relies more on free-market principles than on additional... [Read Full Article]

  Government, Politics and the Economy Recession Watch: Leading Indicators Rise The index of US leading economic indicators rose in June for a third consecutive month, reinforcing other signs that the economy may be emerging from the worst recession in five decades. Bloomberg.com Management and Operations Stay With Your Vision or Maybe Lose Your Business The fall of Dial-a-Matress shows how overexpansion, bringing in executives who don't understand the corporate culture and straying from your vision can all work to kill a company. WSJ.com [Read Full Article]