Watch Bloomberg The Mentor

This is how we grow a real recovery! Watch "The Mentor." http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/shows/the-mentor/

Obama and The R Pack: Pass a 100% Capital Gains Tax Exemption for Startups!

Politicians have a great opportunity to win votes and re-election in the 2012 general election cycle: pass legislation to promote investment in small businesses!

A permanent capital gains tax exemption in C corporations alone will generate a 15% increase in real return to investors.  Startup businesses under five years old account for almost all net growth in jobs in the USA over the past 25 years.

This is the kind of policy that can grow GDP and jobs.  Obama's proposal to permanently exempt startup capital in C corps is also good economic and political strategy.  The R Pack (Santorum, Romney, Gingrich, and Paul) would do well to make this a leading issue in an economic driven election.  We need leadership first, competition and name calling last!

Equal credit on the R side goes to Senators Moran and Warner's "Startup Act," and on The D the "Small Business Tax Extenders Bill" (text) introduced by Senators Snowe and Landrieu.

Write your Congressman: Senate and House (or call).

Encourage them to support these proposals and pass them immediately.  Let them know putting jobs for Americans first will go a long way in keeping their job on The Hill.  Tell them blogs like this are WATCHING what they do and making sure the blogosphere and social networks are aware.As a CFO who in former years served as a campaign manager for a New York candidate running for Congress, I know both sides of this issue.   President Obama is truly on the right track here, as are these leaders in the Senate and House. 

Legislators need to look for ways to spur investment and capital flow to small businesses beyond the provision to C corporations to S corps, LLPs and LLCs. 

Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code allows 100% exclusion from federal taxable income of gain realized (up to $10,000,000) by investors who made qualified investments after September 27, 2010 and before January 1, 2012.  

Joe Wallin does a great job of laying out the technical tax laws on this.   

• President Obama Proposes to Expand and Make Permanent Zero Capital Gains on Small Business Investments.  (Startup Law Blog)

• Capital Gains Tax Exemption for Investment in Startups Would Help New Companies Cross the "Valley of Death.  (Kauffman Report)

The Job Leak in America

The message I put forth over and over is simple: Innovation and entrepreneurship are the keys to a growing economy or individual business.  This is especially true during a recession and tepid recovery period which he have been in the past four and a half years. 

The study "Starting Smaller; Staying Smaller: America's Slow Leak in Job Creation" by the Kauffman Foundation suggests that the country faces a fundamental employment challenge that pre-dates the recession by many years.  This is a long-term trend that the researchers call a slow jobs "leak."

New businesses continue to generate most of the economy's net job gains.  A "job leak" occurs when new firms start up with fewer workers than historic norms, and add fewer workers as they grow.
 
I am surprised The Republican presidential candidates  have not been on top of this!  This is another indictment of the failed policies of the past two administrations--Bush and Obama--both have presided over "job leak."

Analysis of government data shows that since the middle of the last decade and perhaps longer, the growth path and survival rate of new businesses means they are generating fewer and fewer new jobs. The cohort of new firms that started in 2009, for example, is on course to contribute one million fewer jobs in the next decade than historical averages would suggest. 

• Starting Smaller; Staying Smaller: America's Slow Leak in Job Creation (Kauffman)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Defined

Periodically, I like to share the basic definitions of what this blog is about.  New people come to read, and somewhere buried in the archives are the basics.  I always believe that in anything we do in life, success always come as a result of mastering the basics. 

Joseph Schumpeter coined the term “creative destruction” to describe the process by which innovation causes a free market economy to evolve.  Creative destruction occurs when innovations make long-standing arrangements obsolete, freeing resources to be employed elsewhere, leading to greater economic efficiency. 

An entrepreneur is someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. An entrepreneur is an agent of change. Entrepreneurship is the process of discovering new ways of combining resources.

Teaching Kids Financial Fitness

One of the gaping holes in the education system is the life skill of personal finance.  Here is a great way to teach kids about money!  Centsables

Starting a Startup Business

Where I live, February is the worst weather month of the year.  We spend a lot of time inside and travel as little as possible.  February is a good month to read and think.  

Today is "Startup Monday," so let's read and think about it! 

• How to Start a Startup by Paul Graham
• Startup Tools collected by Steve Blank
• Interview with Emmet Gowin by John Caponigro
• Jessica Livingston: What Stops Female Founders?
• Dennis Crowley: Top Five pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs
• Max Levchin: Greatest of Max Levchin's Lessons Learned as a Young Entrepreneur
  
  (Entrepreneurial Design)
  

Will Manufacturing Make a Comeback?

One of the fundamental premises of "What's New America" is that innovation and entrepreneurship are drivers of economic recovery and expansion.  As America continues its recovery from the Great Recession, more and more economists are theorizing that the rising cost of doing business in China and election year politics are bringing manufacturing home from overseas. 

Along these lines, MIT researchers are conducting a two-year Institute-wide research project called Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE) focusing on renewing American manufacturing. The central thesis of this study is the United States still produces a great deal of promising basic research and technological innovation that needs to be translated into economic growth and new jobs.

• Production in The Innovation Economy (MIT)

Oil Pipeline and Keystone

As the debate about the Keystone pipeline continues, I found this a cool set of information.

Get Over the Hump: Leadership To Come Out of Recession

In The USA, we often refer to Wednesday as "Hump Day," the mid point of the week which once this day is over, it's only two more days till the weekend!  

The economic recovery we are in cannot seem to get over the hump.  Maybe where you work cannot seem to get over the hump and breakthrough.  Today is devoted to getting over the hump. 

• The Bad Workplace Hump: Toxic Versus Cooperative Behaviors At Work (International Journal of Leadership Studies )
• Innovating in Recessionary Times (Monitor Innovation)
• The Bad Economy Hump (Milken Institute)

Measuring Innovation, Davos, New in High Tech--It's Tech Tuesday!

Today is Tech Tuesday where we begin our day with a focus on the technology sector.  

The competitiveness of companies today is highly dependent on the ability to be innovative, i.e. constantly exceeding customer expectations, and challenging competitors. 

• Measuring For Innovation: A Guide For Teams (Innovation Management). 
• Insight from Davos: How Global Thought Leaders Talk About Innovation.  (Forbes)
• What's New in High Tech? Where are venture capitalists placing their bets on innovation and entrepreneurship?  **Note: Audio takes 27 seconds to begin in the video below...