Free Republic

“Those in the know seat themselves here” says the woman behind me. The seats of great advantage are the ones next to electric outlets that can be used to supply power to a laptop. About 10% of the crowd seems to have brought their laptops with them and are peering intently into the displays. Others in the audience are tapping out important messages on their pocket communicators – sometimes to their colleagues across the room. Seated nearby are a “consultant in the music business”, a newly graduating attorney, and the owner of a start-up software business which provides secure online...

Taxes: On the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, two Democratic congressmen are advising him to extend the Bush tax cuts instead of letting them expire. Now that's a stimulus. We hear that the administration is considering taking a more populist tack as it sails the choppy political waters of 2010. Some of President Obama's plans reportedly include several tax tidbits for the "middle class," including a doubling of the child care tax credit for families below $85,000 in income, and $1.6 billion for child care and a cap on student loan payments. Such transparent populism...

Bring up the topic of economic stimulus and job creation, and you won't hear much about immigration. If the topic does arise, it's usually because somebody believes foreigners are taking U.S. jobs. It's time to bring the immigration question squarely into the debate over jobs. A change to immigration policy could help create jobs and rev up economic growth. It's a change that wouldn't be hard to bring about. I'm talking about the establishment of a Startup Founders Visa program. The program would make it easier for those with great ideas and the desire to start a company to live...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release October 23, 2009 White House Announces Global Technology and Innovation Fund During his speech in Cairo on June 4, the President announced that the United States would "launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries." As the latest step in delivering on this commitment, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation announced this week a call for proposals for a Global Technology and Innovation Fund. This fund will help catalyze and facilitate private sector investments that promote...

On Monday, former President George W. Bush will be the "special guest speaker" at the "Get Motivated! Business Seminar" in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the event's Web site. "Attend This Dynamic Seminar to INCREASE Your Productivity and Income!" the Web site says. Other listed speakers include Gen. Colin Powell, who will discuss leadership, former football player Terry Bradshaw (speaking on competitiveness), former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (perseverance), and a trio of motivational speakers – Zig Ziglar, Dr. Robert Schuller, and Tamara Lowe. Lowe, the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Get Motivated! Seminars, told Hotsheet that Mr....

Everyone in the full-time political class pays great homage to us entrepreneurs. We are hailed as the "backbone of the American economy" and the "real engine of job creation." Even the liberal wing of the Democratic Party joins in this chorus, carefully differentiating us from that part of the private sector they can successfully publicly disdain as inherently evil. We are the "good" business folks, according to politicians throughout the whole spectrum. So why are the Congress and the president waging war on the entrepreneurial class with unprecedented zeal, scaring us into a protective hunker-down mode while simultaneously stimulating the...

Nearly every day there's some statistic or factor that's bandied about to demonstrate why our economy continues to struggle. But in all the debates among economists and policymakers over the past few months, one group of people has been stunningly underrepresented -- and it's a group that may actually hold the key to economic recovery: entrepreneurs. The vast majority of new jobs during tough economic times are created by entrepreneurs, and since 1980, all net job growth has come from businesses less than five years old. Entrepreneurs nationwide know firsthand the transformative effect that starting a business can have on...

While President Obama is focusing on the redistribution of wealth and Collectivism in the United States, in China opportunities for Internet entrepreneurs is being encouraged.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Until this summer, salesman Jorge Ocampo had always been what he calls a W-2 man. Proof was the Mercedes he bought with cash. But he had always longed to be his own boss. "Almost every day I thought of it," the 54-year-old said. The opportunity came June 2 when he was laid off from a high-tech company. Unlike the millions of people drawing an unemployment check, he enrolled in a little-known program approved by Congress that gives the jobless the weekly cash benefit but also trains them to run their own business. And the newly minted small-business...

One Wausau woman is transforming herself from an out work single mom into a thriving new business owner. After receiving a layoff notice in March, Shannon Thomas says she already has a handful of customers for her wedding planning business, 'One Girl Creative'. Thomas says before starting her company, she needed to start a Limited Liability Corporation. She says it will cost you around $130.00 Dollars and you can apply online. Thomas says it's also important to have a website. She suggest building your own and hosting it yourself to save money. There are dozens of company's like Google and...

NEW YORK—When Amy Sokoloff and John Powell were trying to start their art restoration business in New York City, they needed some working capital. But banks weren’t willing to take a chance on them. “We didn’t own anything — no houses, no cars, we had no collateral,” Sokoloff said. Powell added, “No one wanted to talk to us. They were not interested, and they were not nice about it.” Sokoloff and Powell ended up on the doorstep of ACCION USA, a not-for-profit group patterned after the Third World microfinance institutions best known for providing money to Moroccan farmers for breeding...

I haven't spent this much time thinking about economics since college, when it was my second major. I have dedicated the last 15 years primarily to my first major, computer science, and my first love, entrepreneurship. But that has changed in the last six months, although my primary concern still remains entrepreneurship. I was invited by Tim Kane and Bob Litan of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world's largest foundation dedicated exclusively to the cause of promoting and fostering entrepreneurship, to a small conference of economics bloggers held in Kansas City recently. About 30 of us spent a stimulating...

JOINT BASE BALAD — Coalition forces and members of the Balad Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) recently hosted Iraqi business investors, future entrepreneurs and local government leaders for the first Iraqi Banking and Finance Conference in this area. Soldiers from 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment worked with the PRT to provide a safe environment for approximately 80 economic leaders, including city managers from Yathrib, Ishaki and Dubuiya, to network together and discuss future business opportunities. Amir Abdul-Hadi, the Mayor of Balad district, said to the group there are many profitable projects in the Balad district...

President Barack Obama's tax proposal – which promises to increase taxes for those families with incomes of $250,000 or more -- has some Americans brainstorming ways to decrease their pay, even if it's just by a dollar. A 63-year-old attorney based in Lafayette, La., who asked not to be named, told ABCNews.com that she plans to cut back on her business to get her annual income under the quarter million mark should the Obama tax plan be passed by Congress and become law. So far, Obama's tax plan is being looked at skeptically by both Democrats and Republicans and therefore...

Imagine you are a young Bill Gates. You’re smart. You’re ambitious. You’re thinking about starting a business to put your talents to their best use for you and for society. Then you turn on the television and see President Obama say that “now is not the time” for entrepreneurs to make profits and get bonuses. You hear Vice President Joe Biden say of corporate CEOs: “I’d like to throw these guys in the brig.”

Chennai: 'Slumdog Millionaire' has a fan in Home Minister P Chidambaram, who said on Saturday that its theme should inspire banks to provide loans to budding entrepreneurs from slums which are humming with business ideas. Chidamabaram cited the movie portraying the rags to riches story of a boy from Mumbai slum as an example to show that young boys and girls from slums are not lagging behind corporate India. "Please watch the movie after its release," he said speaking at the launch of the International Financial Corporation-Venture East-Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (an NGO)-sponsored fund to promote grassroots entrepreneurship in India....

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

The world sorely needs an economic revival. Where will it come from? If history is any guide, entrepreneurs will help lead the way. The truly radical or disruptive technologies and business processes that drive economic prosperity -- whether in information technology so far, or in clean energy in the years to come -- are most likely to be commercialized by entrepreneurial firms. Yet, as important as the formation and growth of new firms clearly are, there have been no officially sanctioned, internationally comparable entrepreneurship indicators. Until now. Last month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), working with the...

Are job worries tempting you to start your own company? We canvassed the country to find towns with the best mix of business advantages and lifestyle appeal. Check out our 100 top picks and find the perfect place to build your dream. 1. Bellevue, Wash. Population: 111,608 Pros: Talented workforce, growing downtown Cons: Pricey homes, high cost of living Like many of the places on our list, Bellevue is a city in transition: no longer a bedroom community, but not yet a crowded, expensive metropolitan hub. Bellevue has grown with unusual grace in recent years. Huge corporations exist symbiotically with...

If the turbulent economy has you ready to stuff your mattress with your savings, here’s how to get a better return for your money — while helping to alleviate global poverty to boot. MicroPlace (microplace.com), an eBay-owned business, connects the working poor to would-be lenders, allowing you to invest as little as $20 to get a one to three percent return on your investment — a better rate than offered by many savings accounts. MicroPlace uses your money to fund organizations that make loans to people working to lift themselves out of poverty. Like the popular micro-lending site Kiva.org, MicroPlace...