http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com The smartest ten minutes in small business podcasting. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:45:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en First things first: I apologize for the hiccups in the sound in this week's podcast. I'm thinking it's time to spring for that new CPU and additional RAM. My computer is getting tired and I've been tough on the old gal. Since you took the trouble of coming here to visit, ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/136 You know, one of the most amazing things about the federal government is how often lawmakers seem to react in knee-jerk ways when faced with a problem. The tax gap is a good example; funny how it wasn't until the GAO and the CBO got involved that it occurred to ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/135 When you hear about the tale of Richard Nieswonger and his string of business opportunities from scammer hell, you find yourself wondering why the man isn't back in jail. At least, I did. Bilking people of almost $10,000 each to peddle guidance on how to hide your assets in offshore ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/134 If Senator Robert Byrd actually manages to keep his Senate Appropriations Committee on their marks and gets all 12 federal spending bills out of committee by the end of July -- and that is his publicly stated goal -- I, for one, will be highly impressed. The Senate never moves that ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/133 I called last week's House Small Business Committee subcommittee hearing a 'fascinating' exploration of where our renewables future may be heading but that really doesn't do the event justice. The best part of the program were those occasions when Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) held the floor, and anything I might ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/132 Last week was downright bizarre, wasn't it? In political news, the long-awaited end of the Democratic presidential primary so thoroughly dominated absolutely everything that it seemed as if there wasn't much else happening. You have to feel for John McCain, trying to make his voice heard about the media frenzy fray ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/131 This has been another one of those singularly unexciting weeks in the world of microbusiness news, although our lead story -- about the recently imposed cap on the 7(a) Community Express program -- has all the elements of very high drama to recommend it, except for a palpating audience of ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/130 In case you were wondering about how it comes about that those small firms that are "younger, smaller, less profitable, less liquid, and less credit worthy" are the ones opting for debt financing, you should know that the research in question used the Federal Reserve's Survey of Small Business Finance ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/129 You know, you might not think that the price of food has much to do with your microbusiness -- although, I expect you wouldn't argue that it has quite a lot to do with your life, which you'll have to admit is much more important. But that's where you'd be wrong. ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/128 I didn't have time to get into the particulars of the Fed's proposed credit card industry regulations in the podcast, so if you're wondering what exactly they have in mind, they include: ~ Banks would be prohibited from increasing the rate on a pre-existing credit card balance (except under limited circumstances) ... http://podcast.microbusinessnewsbriefs.com/archives/127