A Wall Street Journal article dated July 2, 2011, titled “Did Someone Say Tech Bubble?”, indicated that entrepreneurial idea flow continues unabated in the US. Given the dour headlines dominating the newswires over Greece’s debt problems and the US’ own budget problems, it is easy to lose sight of what is going on “off of the front pages.” The Journal article points out that the roots of capitalism – new product and service concepts – are alive and well. Of course, the primary impediments to the commercialization of entrepreneurs ideas are capital (funding) shortfalls and or regulatory hurdles (at least in my opinion, having dealt with successful business owners all of my professional life). I was pleased to read today that President Obama reinforced his dictate from earlier in the year to have his agency heads root out unnecessary regulation. I am equally pleased to see that House Speaker Boehner is resisting calls for large scale tax increases, actions that take capital out of private hands and put it in the hands of the government instead, where productive job creation gets stymied. This seems not to be a controversial position as President Obama himself indicated late last year (when he signed legislation delaying the expiration of the Bush era tax rate reductions) that economic growth could be impeded by tax increases.
Your comments or thoughts are welcomed.
Robert M. Bilkie, Jr., CFA