Written on June 28, 2011 by Nicole Hopkins
As I blogged last week, the government has yet to distribute a single dime of the $30 billion approved through the Small Business Lending Fund in December. But as proven by the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, that hasnt stopped small businesses from borrowing, and borrowing big. U.S. small businesses set a record pace for borrowing in May, up 26 percent from the same time last year. Thats the highest rate of borrowing among small businesses since July 2008.
This is exciting news indeed, as small businesses account for an estimated 80 percent of new hires, which the economy desperately needs to combat unemployent that continues to hover above 9 percent.
In fact, the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index has proven itself capable of predicting overall economic developments two to five months in advance.
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Written on June 28, 2011 by Maragaret Harrison
FOX Business: The Power to Prosper
A bounty of upbeat news for financial firms, combined with big gains in the energy markets, helped send the blue chips higher for the third-straight day.
Today’s Markets
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 72.7 points, or 0.6%, to 12,261, the S&P 500 gained 10.7 points, or 0.83%, to 1,307 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 11.2 points, or 0.41%, to 2,740. The FOX 50 climbed 6.7 points to 915.
The blue chips are now on the best winning streak since March.
Financial shares posted the best performance after Bank of America announced it had made an $8.5 billion settlement relating to mortgage-backed securities resulting from its takeover of Countrywide. Mastercard surged to an all-time high after the Federal Reserve proposed a less restrictive plan for so-called debit-card interchange fees than it had initially proposed. <
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Written on June 27, 2011 by Douglas R
SALEM—Rep. Matt Wand (R-Troutdale) today led House passage of Senate Bill 817 to help bring jobs to low-income communities across Oregon. The bill, known as the Oregon Low Income Community Jobs Initiative, creates a matching state tax credit to the federal New Markets Tax Credit to further incentivize economic development targeted to these hard-hit areas.
“This bill will help small businesses locate, expand and create jobs where they’re needed the most,” said Rep. Wand, who carried SB 817 on the House Floor and is one of the bill’s chief co-sponsors. “More local jobs mean more revenue to fund vital programs in our communities. In particular, Rockwood needs these jobs.”
SB 817 provides access to equity capital for small businesses that operate in census-based, federally-designated low-income rural and urban areas. It creates a tax credit against income and corporate excise taxes equal to 39 percent of the cost of a qualified equity investment. The tax credi
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Written on June 27, 2011 by Douglas R
PERSUADING the Government to allow cruise ships to begin and start their voyages at Liverpool is key to the future growth of the city’s visitor economy.
That was the view put forward during the latest LDP Business debate.
Economic development agency The Mersey Partnership has produced detailed documents outlining a push for growth in four key sectors – knowledge economy, superport, low carbon economy and visitor economy.
This latest debate on the visitor economy was chaired by Daily Post business editor, Bill Gleeson, and on the panel was TMP chief executive Lorraine Rogers, Liverpool Football Club managing director Ian Ayre, ACC Liverpool chief executive Bob Prattey and Stephen Roberts, manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Cruise ships are currently allowed to call in at Liverpool’s cruise liner terminal but not begin or end their journeys.
Because of the level of public money used to build the facility, the Government says allowing it to be used as a turnaround facility may contravene the rules on state aid.
TMP, backed by a Daily Post campaign, is pushing for this to be overturned.
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Written on June 27, 2011 by Douglas R
Android versus iPhone pretty well exemplifies the pros and cons of controlled versus free markets. One of the largest pitfalls for Google’s open system, a new study from wireless service company WDS found, is that Android phones suffer from dramatically more hardware faults.
The study used data collected from WDS’ own support services, including more than 600,000 calls covering Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Phone 7 devices. Research In Motion’s BlackBerry easily took the best spot with only 3.7 percent of calls relating to hardware, compared to 8 percent of iPhone calls and 9 percent for Windows Phone 7. Google easily surpassed all three with 14 percent of calls involving hardware faults.
“Android has been instrumental in bringing smartphone technology into the mass-market.” WDS chief marketing officer Craig Rich said in a statement. Read more…
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Written on June 27, 2011 by Maragaret Harrison
POTTSTOWN — The law firm of O’Donnell, Weiss & Mattei PC, 41 E. High St., is very proud to announce that two of its attorneys have been named ‘Rising Stars’ by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Magazine and superlawyers.com. Selections are made on an annual, state-bystate basis. No more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are named to the Rising Stars list.
Attorney Kathleen M. Martin, a Certified Elder Law Attorney, was named as a 2011 Rising Star. Martin is also an accredited attorney for the preparation, presentation, and prosecution of claims for the Veteran’s Administration. A resident of Pottstown, Martin worked as a registered nurse prior to becoming an attorney. After receiving her Juris Doctorate from Widener University School of Law, she joined O’Donnell, Weiss & Mattei in 2002, where she maintains an Elder Law practice in addition to Estate Planning and Estate Administration. Martin is active with the YWCA of Pottstown, is an instructor with Owen J. R
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