The Great Recession has apparently changed the way individual Americans view investing. Buying stocks is no longer seen as safe for long or short-term investment and trading is way down. Credit Suisse Trading Strategy reports that daily trading in American stocks continues to fall and is down almost 50% from the peak in 2008. The […]
Crowdfunding to the rescue for small investors Read More »
Published on April 25, 2012 By John Tozzi, Bloomberg Businessweek Photograph by Darryl Leniuk/Getty Images For a certain breed of conscious consumer, shopping locally is paramount. It signals support for independent stores over big chains, urban downtowns over sprawling shopping centers, small farmers and craftsmen over multinationals. The theory is that a bigger piece of
Investing in Main Street Instead of Just Wall Street Read More »
Today President Obama is scheduled to sign the JOBS Act, legislation that has received both enthusiastic support from the business community and scorn from regulators and consumer organizations. So what is the reality? Well, the JOBS Act is deserving of both praise and scorn. First the praise. Contained in the Act is a provision for
Hope and danger in JOBS Act Read More »
Published on March 23, 2012 By Lisa Allen, The Deal Pipeline As Congress readies to send a package of measures promoting capital formation by startup companies to President Obama, proponents of a provision allowing Internet crowdfunding suggest it will revolutionize capital-raising for smaller companies. The crowdfunding measure is part of a bill that among other
Crowdfunding may aid companies overlooked by VCs, angels Read More »
The Affordable Care Act turns 2 today (read my op.ed here) while we all wait for the Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of the individual mandate to start next week. More on that on Monday. Yesterday was a big and surprising victory in the U.S. Senate. The CROWDFUND Act that we, the American Sustainable
Happy B-Day ACA and Success in U.S. Senate Read More »
Access to Capital vote on TuesdayTell Graham and DeMint to do it the right way The U.S. Senate will vote tomorrow (March 20th) on legislation to create another path for small businesses to access capital. The Small Business Chamber has supported the idea of allowing limited investments in small businesses with relatively low caps on
Published on March 15, 2012 By Eliza Newlin Carney | Roll Call As the Senate prepares to take up the House-passed Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, a popular proposal to free up capital through “crowdfunding” has pitted consumer advocates against entrepreneurs. The idea behind crowdfunding is simple: Instead of going to a bank for loan, a
Crowdfunding Proposal Hits Snag Read More »
This week I’m off to DC to join David Levine, co-founder and director of the American Sustainable Business Council, in a media tour for the ASBC (I serve as vice-chair of the organization). We will be doing a few other things including have discussions with the Americans for Financial Reform and hopefully some Congressional staff
Access to capital through crowdfunding Read More »
Last Friday I told you that the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow small businesses to solicit investment capital of up to $1 million with a $10,000 maximum per individual contribution without having to do all the expensive and time consuming paperwork registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The concept is
Update on crowdfunding legislation Read More »
If your feet felt cold this morning, it’s because Hell has frozen over. Last evening the U.S. House passed overwhelmingly (407-17) a piece of President Obama’s American Jobs Act. While the Senate Republicans yesterday blocked the transportation part of the jobs bill, House Republicans and Democrats solidly supported changing Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations
Hope for bipartisanship and small business? Read More »
