The Small Business Watchdog

            Wednesday, December 31 is the deadline for the 2009 r3 Top 10 Rules for Review and Reform nominations. In an earlier post we noted:
 
            The American City Business Journals recently ran an article by Kent Hoover, their Washington Bureau Chief, summarizing the Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative’s call for nominations of federal rules [...]

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            I was invited to serve as a discussant for a luncheon seminar hosted by the Hudson Institute and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship on Dec. 9, 2008.  Antony Ni, a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and an entrepreneur both in China and in United States presented an update of data on doing [...]

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            Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy, will chair the National Economics Club the Washington, D.C., chapter of National Association for Business Economics, serving for 2009.
 
            The most recent issue of the NABE newsletter profiles Chad and outlines what he sees for NABE, the NEC, Advocacy, and small business in 2009.
 
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            A recent article in the Washington Post details how trade associations and membership organizations are feeling the effects of the recession as their members earn less or even go out of businesses.  The Post reports: 

Reflecting the economic turmoil of the industries they represent, many national trade associations based in Washington are hemorrhaging members who [...]

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            I am pleased to report the successful conclusion of a major environmental effort by our office.  In response to an effort that Advocacy initiated in 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a second rule governing oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response in December.
            EPA realized that its original SPCC (spill prevention, control, and countermeasure) [...]

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            Recently, I attended Gerard Boychuk’s presentation on Is Canadian Healthcare a Model for the U.S.? at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC.  Dr. Boychuk is Director of Global Governance at the Basillie School of International Affairs at the University of  Waterloo, Ontario.  The presentation was based on his new book, National Health Insurance in [...]

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            The American City Business Journals recently ran an article by Kent Hoover, their Washington Bureau Chief, summarizing the Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative’s call for nominations of federal rules that should be reviewed and reformed.
 
            The 2008 Top 10 Rules for Review and Reform have has already resulted in some success, as Kent [...]

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            Providing health care coverage for employees has become increasing difficult for small business owners.  To address the issue, on December 4th the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative hosted the Colorado Voices for Coverage conference.  It was designed to bring a diverse group of stakeholders together to discuss how to move healthcare reform forward in Colorado.  [...]

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            I recently attended a one-day symposium entitled “Confronting Concentrated Poverty: A Policy Forum” at the Federal Reserve Board here in DC.  I was disappointed but also excited at the close of the meeting.  The disappointment was due to the absence of small business and entrepreneurship in the discussion.  The excitement was generated from my [...]

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            The announcement by the National Bureau of Economic Research declaring that a recession began in December 2007 did not surprise many people.  Many economists, including Moody’s Economy.com Chief Economist Mark Zandi, have suggested this for much of the year, and certainly many Americans have long sensed this reality, as well.  Especially in light of [...]

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