What fool in their right mind would start a business in this country today. Obama and his minions hate business owners. The government knows best. The government will provide. The government will create jobs.
With ever increasing taxes, fees, regulations, mandates, requirements, and laws to abide by, it isn’t worth the risk to start a new company. Small businesses are closing shop by the thousands due to Obamacare. The charts below are proof that Obama and our government hate small business owners and have only accelerated the long term trend of less startups and more closures.
American small business is dying.
Authored by Jim Clifton, Gallup CEO & Chairman,
The U.S. now ranks not first, not second, not third, but 12th among developed nations in terms of business startup activity. Countries such as Hungary, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Israel and Italy all have higher startup rates than America does.
We are behind in starting new firms per capita, and this is our single most serious economic problem. Yet it seems like a secret. You never see it mentioned in the media, nor hear from a politician that, for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the total number of new business startups and business closures per year — the birth and death rates of American companies — have crossed for the first time since the measurement began. I am referring to employer businesses, those with one or more employees, the real engines of economic growth. Four hundred thousand new businesses are being born annually nationwide, while 470,000 per year are dying.
You may not have seen this graph before.
Until 2008, startups outpaced business failures by about 100,000 per year. But in the past six years, that number suddenly turned upside down. There has been an underground earthquake. As you read this, we are at minus 70,000 in terms of business survival. The data are very slow coming out of the U.S. Department of Census, via the Small Business Administration, so it lags real time by two years.
Net Number of New U.S. Firms Plummets
Business startups outpaced business failures by about 100,000 per year until 2008. But in the past six years, that number suddenly reversed, and the net number of U.S. startups versus closures is minus 70,000.
My hunch is that no one talks about the birth and death rates of American business because Wall Street and the White House, no matter which party occupies the latter, are two gigantic institutions of persuasion. The White House needs to keep you in the game because their political party needs your vote. Wall Street needs the stock market to boom, even if that boom is fueled by illusion. So both tell us, “The economy is coming back.”
Let’s get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses.
Dead-Wrong Thinking
It is catastrophic to be dead wrong on the biggest issue of the last 50 years — the issue of where jobs come from. Our leadership keeps thinking that the answer to economic growth and ultimately job creation is more innovation, and we continue to invest billions in it. But an innovation is worthless until an entrepreneur creates a business model for it and turns that innovative idea in something customers will buy. Yet current thinking tells us we’re on the right track and don’t need different strategies, so we continue marching down the path of national decline, believing innovation will save us.
I don’t want to sound like a doomsayer, but when small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born, so is free enterprise. And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.
Let’s run some numbers. You will often hear from otherwise credible sources that there are 26 million businesses in America. This is misleading; 20 million of these reported “businesses” are inactive companies that have no sales, profits, customers or workers. The only number that is useful and instructive is the number of current operating businesses with one or more employees.
There are only 6 million businesses in the United States with one or more employees. Of those, 3.8 million have four or fewer employees — mom and pop shops owned by people who aren’t building a business as much as they are building a life. And God bless them all. That is what America is for. We need every single one of them.
Next, there are about a million companies with five to nine employees, 600,000 businesses with 10 to 19 employees, and 500,000 companies with 20 to 99 employees. There are 90,000 businesses with 100 to 499 employees. And there are just 18,000 with 500 employees or more, and that figure includes about a thousand companies with 10,000 employees or more. Altogether, that is America, Inc.
Let me be very clear. America, Inc. is far more important to America’s security than our military. Because without the former prospering — and solvent — there is no latter. We have enormous military power only because of a growing economy that has, so far, made it possible for the government to pay its bills. When former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was asked in a Senate hearing on June 28, 2011, to name the biggest current threat to the security of the United States, he didn’t say al-Qaida. He didn’t say Iran’s nuclear capabilities. He answered, “I believe our debt is the greatest threat to our national security.”
Declining Businesses Mean Declining Revenues for Social Spending
Keep in mind that these 6 million businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, provide jobs for more than 100 million Americans and much of the tax base for everything. These small, medium and big businesses have generated the biggest economy in the world, which has allowed the country to afford lavish military and social spending and entitlements. And we’ve been able to afford all of this because, until now, we’ve dominated the world economy.
When new businesses aren’t being born, the free enterprise system and jobs decline. And without a growing free enterprise system, without a growing entrepreneurial economy, there are no new good jobs. That means declining revenues and smaller salaries to tax, followed by declining aid for the elderly and poor and declining funding for the military, for education, for infrastructure — declining revenues for everything.
America has maintained the biggest tax coffers in the world because its 300+ million citizens have produced and owned one-quarter of virtually all global wealth. The United States clobbered everyone in the battle of free enterprise, in the battle of business building, and in the battle of inventing the future. Until recently, America had blown the world away in terms of economic success. We are now quickly losing that edge, and everything we’re trying to do to fix the problem is dead wrong.
Here’s why: Entrepreneurship is not systematically built into our culture the way innovation or intellectual development is. You might say, “Well, I see a lot of entrepreneurial activity in the country.” Yes, that’s true, but entrepreneurship is now in decline for the first time since the U.S. government started measuring it.
The whole country and subsequently the world are having their own dead-wrong moment, and it is causing America and the whole world to make everything worse. And people know it, though they may not know why. When Gallup asked Americans to rate how much they personally worry about particular problems facing the country, the top three issues that respondents worry about a “great deal” were the economy (59%), federal spending and the budget deficit (58%), and the availability and affordability of healthcare (57%).
The more we execute on our leadership’s erroneous belief in innovation, the more our engine stalls out — and the more people rightly worry about economic issues.
Because we have misdiagnosed the cause and effect of economic growth, we have misdiagnosed the cause and effect of job creation. To get back on track, we need to quit pinning everything on innovation, and we need to start focusing on the almighty entrepreneurs and business builders. And that means we have to find them.
I saw this earlier and immediately forwarded it to the people I know who have claimed that “Obamacare will allow people to leave their jobs and open their own small businesses,” a popular meme among progressive media coverage.
Another myth blown out of the water. And I don’t think the Gallup CEO is overstating things when he says, “when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.” That includes over-regulation, not just desire to own/run your own business.
Who in their right fucking mind is going to start a business with the millions of pages of new regs/fines/penalties formulated by the Pointy Headed- Ivory Tower -Highly Credentialed but Economically Illiterate Moonbats in the fed.gov?
Who in their right fucking mind is going to start a business when the fed.gov clearly uses the alphabet agencies – IRS, OSHA, DOJ, etc – to harass business owners whose political leanings oppose the fed.gov policies?
Who in their right fucking mind is going to invest their blood, sweat, tears, time and money in a small business when their entire bank account can be “bailed in” when the bank’s “investment” (aka gambling) arm goes tits up?
Who in their right fucking mind is going to start a small business when the labor pool is full of Special Snowflake-Professional Victim-Tattoo’d- Body Pierced- Functionally Illiterate-Reality Skill Set Deficient-Work Ethic Absent-Entitlement Mindset- Nincompoops???
And who in their right fucking mind thinks that the economy and civil society of the USA is going to survive the death of the private sector?
We. Are. Doomed.
Our republican governor is a multimillionaire ex businessman, you would think he understands accounting.
This guy, with bipartisan support, wants to raise the sales tax in Michigan from 6% to 7%. The fucknuts in charge claim this will raise $300 million to schools, $260 million in tax relief to low income tit suckers, and $1.8 Billion to fix potholes.
And they also want to raise the state gas tax, so we can pay 7% sales tax on state and federal gas tax.
News flash stupid fucks in charge! Retail sales are down, nobody has disposable income to keep buying shit. Did they just pull these numbers out of their collective assholes?
Oh yeah….. they did. I’m not sure if the gov hates business, or they are just that fucking stupid.
I just went to Flagstaff and pointed out all the for lease and for sale signs on empty commercial buildings to my daughter. I don’t know what the government is on when they say stuff about how great everything is. The local news also. I about want to shoot the tv at times.
I wonder when people well wake up?
What kind of business can you start any more?
Either the big box retailers have already covered it, or a franchise chain, or you can easily buy it over the net.
That leaves service sector jobs: Cleaning / Window washing / lawn care / or a one man shop: real estate, insurance, car repair, painting.
Even if you like your profession – government and big business have turned work in to a drudge.
The huge companies have such a lock on government that they’re enabled to write the laws and regulations in such a way to shut out small business. In many cases these huge companies have a legion of lawyers so for them the regs are no problem. Onerous, however, for the small businessperson.
An example is the recently enacted “PCI compliance” fee for those of us with merchant accounts that adds another $120-$170 a year to the cost. Meantime companies like Target & Home Depot are sloppy with their customers credit card info and get off scott-free leaving us little guys to pay the penalty.
I discovered my merchant provider (First Data) was secretly double-billing my account for the fee for the past two years….I had payed the original 3rd party company they recommended then they took it in house (along with my money w/o my permission). Got back the most recent fee but no dice for last year, so I wound up paying TWICE!
The damage Obama ad his minions have caused will live long after he is gone.
I am shocked, I tell you. This cannot be true.
Sarcasm off.
I do not have time to comment, or energy, just now. There is so much against small business at the moment, it is wondrous any new businesses are started at all.
Dutchman….I was going to suggest going into the whorehouse business….but the gooberment has a monopoly on screwing….us.
For PCI I recommend Authorize .Net
Kill entrepreneurship and small businesses–it’s how fascists roll!
Hey, Yahsure,
I am in Flagstaff and you are right, this town is a economic disaster. And in their infinite wisdom, the voters handed the city council to the biggest dumbass progs you can imagine. They even took a stand against food freedom and backyard gardening last year and they still swept the election!
Their first order of business is to ban plastic grocery bags and, next up, raise the minimum wage.
It’s gonna be another great year here in Prog Town!
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
–H. L. Mencken
Too bad we all get what they deserve.
In a nutshell, here is why I think small businesses are failing, and are nearly impossible to start and keep alive.
As background, a five year failure rate for small businesses of around 95% used to be considered or touted as common. In other words, it has always been extremely difficult to start and maintain a small business. The article says 400,000 are now being created, and 470,000 are dying. So, there has been a net negative shift of 170,000 – from plus 100,000k to minus 70k. Business start-ups have dropped, from over 550,000 to 400,000. This is the lowest level recorded on the chart below – which is catastrophic give the population growth since 1977.
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So, now on to the why the failure rate is so high
The basic reason small businesses fail is that 1) owner/managers of small business simply do not posses the myriad skills required to run a business, 2) the negative impact (ie. cost) of governmental regulations, fees, reporting, etc., and 3) insufficient cash flow to navigate the start-up period.
Re skills required, it used to be if you were a baker, you could start a bakery, or if you were a welder you could start a small metal manufacturing business. But those days are over. To start /run a small business you currently need the following skills/knowledge: Human resource and employment law, EPA law and reporting, tax regulation and reporting, contract law and negotiation, purchasing, marketing, finance and accounting, etc. etc. Very few bakers or welders would have this background. In addition to the years needed getting appropriate baking/welding skills, you need perhaps a decade of experience in the functions mentioned above. And where will a baker get the opportunity to do that? He or she will not.
Re governmental cost, the list is damn near endless. There are local, state and federal costs everywhere you turn. You have to be a tax collector (sales, payroll, estimated, etc) an EPA reporter, etc., which all cost money. You have to keep meticulous books – which costs money. You have to pay worker’s comp, SS, property taxes. You have to pay the world’s highest rate of corporate tax. You have to keep meticulous employment records. The list goes on and on. And in addition to these costs, you need to know that you are actually responsible for the costs- and a lot of folks have no idea that they even exist.
And of course, underestimating cash requirements kill a lot of businesses.
Fact is, I suspect that most people that start businesses these days have no clue what they are doing. Thy do not know what they do not know. They are doomed to failure. The folks with the most knowledge and the best chance of success would have to be the least likely to start businesses, as they know the deck is stacked against them.
So we have a situation where it is damn near impossible to start and run a successful small business, and only the most naïve and ill-prepared would even attempt it.
The situation is far direr than the author understands. It is a death spiral, and I see no way out. There is no way there will be a reversal of the regs and laws, and those in and of themselves make starting a small business nigh on impossible.
Welcome to reality.
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BB SAYS LIPOH , I AM MAKING MORE MONEY NOW THEN AT ANY TIME IN MY LIFE DRIVING MY OWN TRUCK AT FEDX.I NEEDED ABOUT 12000 FOR DOWN PAYMENT ON TRUCK.YOU HAVE TO STAY ON THE ROAD TO MAKE MONEY,CANT SIT AT HOME.
DAMN ANONYMOUS IS BB .DONT KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY PHONE
Well, this small business guy is exhausted and disheartened. You’ll always have a few that have a niche that will temporarily yield, but the trend is so alarmingly clear. I’ll tell you how existing businesses in boring sectors are ‘making it’. We’re sacrificing altitude for ground speed, ensuring a date out in the future with a harsh landing. I could rant about specifics, but that would derail my point – there is no reason to invest in my debt free diversified business focusing on areas where I have distinct competence and solid quality relative to my peers.
Risk is now paramount. As in, don’t take any. This is the lifeblood for business – and we’ve bled out. There is so much downside you must focus on what you do – as you walk that tightrope you’ve had to learn to forego such luxuries as safety nets. With risk you can’t innovate and dump losers for winners so attrition is the cancer eating away at sectors of our economy as well.
Recently, counter party risk has begun to rear its ugly head – and I’d estimate nearly all of this country’s GDP spends some time in the receivables column. The fact that these receivables are getting pushed out is bad, but when I don’t think after…….90…..120 days, you’re paying me – then pay me now or I don’t do it. The other side doesn’t have it. They haven’t in some time. If you want to find the reason for the day, when it comes, doors don’t open for business and I mean en masse – look no further than counter-party risk.
I could go on, you get it. Fuck, I’m boring myself now – if you made it this far go drink.
The good news just keeps coming.
“DAMN ANONYMOUS IS BB .DONT KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY PHONE ”
Don’t worry, it’s probably operator error.
Fedex drivers are one speeding ticket, one court ruling, one price-undercut away from out of business. Court ruling could happen at any time.
Small-businessmen they are not.
So, I’m starting a business soon. LLPOH, are you saying I’m a dumbass? I just want to know. I’ll be a one man show taking business over the net. It will be a service/product and not solely a product. I’m about $10,000 into the creation phase.
Wip – good luck. If you can keep your risk to zero, then you are not a dumbass. Seeing you are $10k in, well, good luck.
I do not know what your business is, and I do not know:
– your risks re costs,
– your exposure to various legislation (worker’s comp, EPA, local regs re running business from home (I assume that is the case),
– your abilities at record keeping,
– the cash flow implications and your skill at managing such, nor your cash buffers,
– your ability to manage tax implications, insurance (product/property/etc.) and liability issues (ie are you at risk of being sued, are your personal assets isolated from anyone suing you/any investors, family, contractors?),
– your exposure to creditors and debtors,
– any personal guarantees the business may require
– your ability to handle finance and accounting, file taxes and various, possibly numerous, returns
– your ability to pay/maintain estimated tax if and when it comes up,
– whether you need to import or deal with overseas companies,
– whether you are incorporated, whether you are an S corp or whatever,
– your ability to pay SS, worker’s comp, sales tax, if you are going to be an employee of the company
– your obligations toward OHS – both on and off-site for customers/suppliers/etc?
– whether you know how to document OHS issues and have you done so? (Even office work requires it.)
– whether you know your obligations should you hire or sub-contract?
– etc ad infinitum
Do you have answers to the above? Do you know how to handle all of these issues if they are required? Do you know how to project cash flow and manage creditors/debtors? Do you know how to schedule orders/ purchase goods/negotiate contracts/minimize liability? Are you prepared for the personal – perhaps even criminal – risk of getting any of these things wrong?
I know this is a whole tub of cold water being thrown at you, but starting a business is fraught with risk. You may well be prepared to risk much (personally, I do not take risk with my employee’s safety, with criminal risk, with tax risk, with EPA risk, etc – at all) – but you need to make sure you understand the risks. They are real. And if certain things go wrong, some of these things can cause the loss of all you own, the loss of things any investors in your business own, and perhaps the loss of your freedom, and perhaps worst of all the loss of life if you should get safety issues wrong.
If you do not have all of this under control, or at least understand it and be making informed decisions, you are potentially entering into dumbass territory.
But I wish you all the very best of luck. Be careful out there.
@LLPOH
Are you willing to mentor an aspiring pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind?
I will answer everyone of those questions above.
wip – happy to provide advice as I can. I am a bit jaded but it is refreshing that folks such as you are still willing to go for it.
When you are young you can take more risk. The key is knowing what those risks are.
Well, at the rate I’m going, retirement is not looking like I was hoping. I am, however, emboldened because the area I live in (D.C) seems to have non-stop cash/credit. That plus the industry I am in is newish and I know how to do it.
I am serious about the mentor thing though. I have a mentor but he cannot read and/or write. He sounds like a bad mentor, right? Well, he is a millionaire who turned his moms printing business (they were running it out of their garage) into an online print shop. He is quite successful. BUT he seriously cannot read or write.
If you are up to mentoring me, I would be grateful.
I will keep checking to see if you respond. I can give admin my email if you would be a mentor.
Would you be mine, could you be mine, won’t you be my mentor?
If one truly bothered to reconcile what they see on a daily basis, versus what they were viewing 20 years ago, this would not have to be written.
No shit Sherlock.
Everyday we open our doors we are putting our entire future at risk. We can have our assets confiscated – WITHOUT trial, we can have our future earnings garnished because some trespassing dumass decides to run across our parking lot, we can have our entire way of life taken away for as little as a leaking roof, or non-regulation water faucet, or mislabeled hand cleaner.
Then we get to comply and defer and try and finance the thousands of new regulations, plus the old ones, with more coming fast and furious everyday.
Our employees could choose to come to work wasted, or tired, or just stupid and then decide to play jousting with fork trucks (happened to a former client, one guy lost a leg and the business owner lost everything), or run in oil, or drink mineral spirits, touch an open flame, whatever, then sue us and take it all away.
Ever since Clinton was purchased by Walmart, the writing has been on the wall. Once things like Dodd-Frank (outlaws self-funded home loans for small builders and homeowners), the Lead Law (made handmade American wood toys illegal, while gifting the likes of Mattel a government-mandated 30% bump to their sales and profits), the crackdown on charities, the crackdown on “pollution,” plus the fact that every worker bee and lawyer from LA to Bangor thinks that ALL business owners are rich bastards that cheat on their taxes (and wives), abuse their employees and steal from us all.
The deck is so stacked, I cringe when I see someone taking their life savings to open yet another restaurant or landscaping service.
@WiP, I wish you luck, lots and lots of luck. And the ability to be profitable without employees thus keeping hoardes of bureaucrats out of your ass. Oh yeah, do yourself a favor and find the least regulated area to open too. Good luck with that one.
Well thank gawd their are 18,000 that will be left open to hire the millions and millions of us. I’m sure they will once their Asian workers start making $50k a year and the Asian government start making them pay OSHA, retirement, health care, USDA and EPA regulations.
This isn’t a “secret,” the fact is that the destruction is intentional and still in its infancy.
Once the number of startups falls below 100k, then one can hope that the gubment starts coming down on the big guys that are left.
I predict that within 20 years the only middle class left will be a few (very, very few) clerks and assistants to a few rich guys, and a whole bunch of government bureaucrats and protected unionists.
The author did amuse me greatly though. He states that we could “afford” our military. Only someone with NO math ability could make that claim. Hell, we can’t afford the future pension payments for our federal workers, let alone today’s expenditures. And we have NEVER been able to “afford” it. We have borrowed it from our great-grandchildren. The payments are going to kill them.
@Card, yea Snyder is a political hack, but what the hell, he and his friends got theirs. The one thing this grand Repuke plan neglects to tell us is how they are going to convince us to raise taxes again when the Obamacare paybacks start to the Fed gov in 2017. Everything I’ve read has shown that Michigan will have to DOUBLE their tax takes to pay for it. And that is only if they are able to keep current expenses static.
Besides, how is it that nearly 100% of our population has forgotten that we already enacted the 3rd highest gas taxes in the country to pay for our roads starting in the ’70s. What the hell happened to all that money?
Oh, that’s right, unions, connections and governmental paid-for-life employees.
With the continuous refusal to accept reality, any reality, there is no fixing this mess.
From “health” care, our food supply, government promises all the way through waging war with the world even as we empty our capabilities to fund or even build for it, there is NO fixing this shit.
BB continues to amuse me with his 100% refusal to even look at his contingencies. All that money could be gone in an instant if a car load of kids pulls out in front of his truck. After all, the lawyers will believe him when he says he is a small business. Then they will take it all away, along with a huge percentage of his future earnings.
The vast majority of businesses left are one more regulation, fine, lawsuit, or requirement away from saying screw it.
And they don’t even see the storm brewing on the horizon. Exactly whom do we plan on selling our products and services to? The “rich” will get smart (and many already have) and move, the poor will eat until the day the illusion fades, the middle is nearly dead already.
Happy thoughts, no?
Wip
Sure, I would mentor you except for one thing. I don’t think you are REALLY serious about starting a business. Otherwise, you would be out working, or so damn tired from putting in a day’s work that you would be sleeping. Instead, you’re here fucking around a blog begging for help. So, here’s my first bit of advice. Get off your lazy fucking ass and quit flapping your gums and actually DO something.
Another thing, and I’m dead serious about this, since you seem to need “mentoring” I suggest you start by hiring smart people — people smarter than yourself, which at this point seems like just about anyone. I would start by hiring a secretary with big tits.
Hope that helped.
Wip – the above is not me. It is a douchebag that can go fuck himself. You have put out a real request for assistance and some fuckwit makes light of it. Not what I consider this site to be about. We really are here to orovide a service.
As I said, I am very pleased to know that folks like you are still willing to try. It is exceptional.
I will consider what you have asked.
llpoh
Amen , all bullet points should be committed to memory. In my 25 plus years of experience all problems ultimately effect capitalization , lack of adequate capitalization is a death sentence.
Wip – the last Llpoh (at 10:14) above is not me, it’s a dirty rat bastard doppleganger. I really don’t have the time to help you. I’m in the process of selling my business so that I can live a life of extreme luxury and ease, like SSS. I worked hard enough, and I deserve it. If I do change my mind, I want 10% of your profits. There’s you first lesson Sasquatch, nothing in business or life is free.
TeresaE – I admire what you do to no end. You know I truly understand what you are going through.
I laid it on poor Wip pretty heavy, too. It is a very tough world out there for sure, but we desperately need the Wips of the world to take a risk. They need to keep their eyes open, tho.
But you are correct to highlight the risks esp. re getting sued, etc. A small business can get sued in a heartbeat. That is one reason my company is fully incorporated – it insulates me from most suits personally. Nonetheless, I spend about $250k per year on insurances to protect against lawsuits for injury, product failure, various professional indemnities, etc. i am having to ratchet up deductibles as of late to try to keep the costs from exploding even further.
Llpoh, will you help me also? All I need is one great super duper smart person who knows everything there is to know and I think I can escape my life of poverty. Are you that man? I think you are.
Prisonerofzelda – capitalization/cash flow issues kill a lot of companies. Lots of profitable companies can die off for that reason, as well as the non-profitable.
I have seen many companies grow themselves to death – they mistake growth for profit, and mistake cash flow for dapital/equity. Growth can bring cashflow, but hide the fact the business is losing money. The penny drops eventually, and the company goes under.
Wip – I forgot to mention that a business must know its break-even point above and beyond perhaps anything else.
Stephdoppler – I only work with folks that run honest businesses. And I kid you not.
I am not discouraged by any assholes who pretend to be LLPOH. I have come to the conclusion that any person can learn from others. And in business even CEOs get advice from other CEOs. No one knows everything.
LLPOH, I have answered your questions and will wait for Admin to connect us.
Comment #1
“Let me be very clear. America, Inc. is far more important to America’s security than our military. Because without the former prospering — and solvent — there is no latter.”
—-from the article
Well, duh.
Comment #2
I don’t know who is doppelganging Llpoh, Stephanie Shepard and possibly Wip above, but this is not useful to this site. It is degrading.
I guess you think you’re being cute, perhaps to start a shitstorm. Wrong. What you are doing is impeding serious discussion, which is likely your intention.
I really, really detest people like you.
Furthermore, and I’m not kidding, I still have many connections with my friends in The Organization. You know who I mean. I have the ability to track you down and make you squeal like a pig,you lousy bastard doppleganger. You piece of Commie dog poo. I hate you!! Get off my lawn!!!
Llpoh and SSS
When did you guys lose your man berries, and become pussies?
@LLPOH and SSS
No, I wasn’t doppleganged. My Mr. Rogers comment/question was an attempt to ask in a humorous and creative way for the help of a mentor. I have great respect for honest and successful people. Especially entrepreneurs. In fact, I believe that entrepreneurs are the modern day farmers.
Submitted by Lance Roberts via STA Wealth Management,
Birth/Death Adjustments Vs. Reality
There has been much discussion as of late about the “longest string of employment gains since the 90’s.” There is certainly no argument that employment has improved since the financial crisis, however, with the economy six years into a recovery we should certainly expect as much.
However, there has been much debate about the real strength of those employment gains given the fact that a large majority of the population, the highest levels on record, remain unaccounted for. As I discussed recently, the most perplexing of is the near record low participation rate of the 16-54 age group.
One of the issues that has come under fire over the last few years has been the method by which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) adjusts the employment data to smooth otherwise volatile data. One of the more questionable adjustments is the birth/death model which is a monthly guess at the addition and subtraction of businesses to the economy.
Gallup CEO & Chairman recently took the BLS to task on the measure stating:
“We are behind in starting new firms per capita, and this is our single most serious economic problem. Yet it seems like a secret. You never see it mentioned in the media, nor hear from a politician that, for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the total number of new business startups and business closures per year — the birth and death rates of American companies — have crossed for the first time since the measurement began. I am referring to employer businesses, those with one or more employees, the real engines of economic growth. Four hundred thousand new businesses are being born annually nationwide, while 470,000 per year are dying.”
Birth-Death-Firms-011514
This is an extremely important point as it suggests that employment, as presented by the BLS, has been significantly overstated over the past six years. If we take the differential as stated by Gallup and compare that to the annual birth/death adjustment used by the BLS we find that jobs have been overstated by 3,678,000 or more than 613,000 annually.
Employment-BD-Adj-Diff-011515
How does this compare to the cumulative number of jobs as reported by the BLS since 2009? It is quite substantial.
Employment-BD-Adj-011515
If we assume that Gallup is correct in its assessment, this goes a long way in explaining the existing slack in the labor force and lack of wage growth. However, Jim summed it up best by when he stated:
“My hunch is that no one talks about the birth and death rates of American business because Wall Street and the White House, no matter which party occupies the latter, are two gigantic institutions of persuasion. The White House needs to keep you in the game because their political party needs your vote. Wall Street needs the stock market to boom, even if that boom is fueled by illusion. So both tell us, ‘The economy is coming back.’
Let’s get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses.”
Huh. EC got doppled as well. Guess you didn’t get the word I sent him away for folding like a cheap tent over Stuck’s threat of a shitfest. I’d have slapped EC’s ass even more if he ever used a word like “man berries”, it’s balls, nuts, – not fucking ‘berries’.
Please Pass This Message on HILLARY CLINTON IS AGAINST VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES SDVOSB AND VOSB
HILLARY PROVED THAT WHEN SHE HEADED THE STATE DEPARTMENT – SET ASIDES OVERSEAS WERE GIVE TO FOREIGN AND INELIGIBLE LARGE COMPANIES.
HILLARY did not ensure that all solicitations by U.S. Embassy contracting officers overseas with a value of between $ 3,000 and $ 150,000 were reserved exclusively for U.S. Small Businesses only and she will do worse than Obama in harming U.S. Small Businesses where 25% have just given up on contracting with the Federal Government.
I own SDVOSB Latvian Connection LLC and it is my Protests that now make it that FEDBID will never again suspend a U.S. Small Business as they are not a Federal Agency ( who did those 2 Billionaires think they were ) B-410947 and B-410981 It took 500 GAO protests to get those 2 wins against FEDBID.
It is my GAO protest win that caused the END of PROCNET and ASFI – both are now decommissioned. B-411489 ASFI is not the GPE and neither is DIBBS, FEDCONNECT and neither is FEDBID for solicitations with a value of over $ 25,000 I expect all solicitations to be posted on http://www.fbo.gov overseas or not – I don’t care. It is a negative determination against U.S. Small Businesses to conceal them.
What we ( U.S Small Businesses ) have trouble with is the white collar criminal contracting officers not setting aside ALL solicitations with a value of between $ 3,000 and $ 150,000 100% of the time. I am protesting against these KO s and they are being named on the GAO tab of http://www.usmilitarycontracting.org and the GAO who fabricate decisions that countermand U.S Federal Laws, Statutes, Regulations and Directives are being named along with 26 pieces of information.
Hillary Clinton was on duty when U.S. Embassies in the middle east were awarding Micro Purchases to foreign companies and they were awarding solicitations with a value of between $ 3,000 to $ 150,000 to foreign companies. That is a PRESUMED LOSS to U.S. Small Businesses and Hillary Clinton doesn’t care about Veteran Owned Businesses and neither does Obama or John Kerry.
I am a retired MSgt Keven L. Barnes had a dream that our company would bid on contracts in the Middle East and we would do well; the Small Business Act would be honored and all solicitations with the value of between $ 3,000 and $ 150,000 would be reserved exclusively for U.S. Small Businesses.
What we have experienced is that the Agencies operating overseas; State Dept; Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, USACE, and Dept of Interior are corrupt to the core of the Obama run White House. Hillary is no exception.
To fight this corruption – I write more GAO Protests than any other company in the world by a factor of 3. I shouldn’t have to. I have read about 25% of the U.S. Small Businesses giving up bidding on contracts due to this corruption. Hillary Clinton is part of the corruption in Washington DC and she wants nothing more than to put Veterans out of business.
I have written hundreds if not thousands of GAO protests and this white collar crime has accomplices in the GAO covering up with their decisions that countermand Federal Laws, Statutes, Directives, Anti-bundling measures and measures against 3rd Party Anti-Small Business Reverse Auctions.
Latvian gets corrective action 75% of the time which is called the effective rate. The GAO on a whole have a 42% effective rate.
That means there is a contracting irregularity 75% of the time.
The State Dept cancel solicitations rather than face the GAO ruling. They know they will lose if an Agency Report is asked of them.
And we have been discriminated against since that date by Hillary Clinton and John Kerry regarding State Dept solicitations. They are concealing them and awarding them to foreign companies instead of U.S. Small Businesses.
Hillary Clinton has already harmed my company since June 2009 and that is going to be my message to Veterans across the United States. Hillary Clinton has already proven she does not respect the Small Business Act or Veterans, or any other category of U.S. Small Business for that matter.
The Democrats have harmed SDVOSB Latvian Connection LLC and Hillary Clinton was the head of contracting for the State Department and did the same harm that John Kerry is right now.
I bid on State Department solicitations and file protests when they are not set aside under the SDVOSB Program.
This committee is on the CC of all protests written and filed to the GAO and you will get a copy of the protest against the white collar criminal activity of the Dept of Defense and State Dept happening right now overseas and in the United States.
Presumed Loss is when an ineligible company is awarded a Small Business Contract that has a value of between $ 3,000 and $ 150,000 and if the Rule of 2 applies
It is a Legal Opinion of the SBA Senior Attorney Laura Manneyester that the Small Business Act applies world-wide. It is a fact that all solicitations with a value of between $ 3,000 and $ 150,000 is reserved for U.S. Small Businesses only world-wide.
Hillary’s State Dept awards to foreign and ineligible companies will be published under the GAO tab on http://www.usmilitarycontracting.org
http://www.SDVOSB-AGAINST-HILLARY.com
was a success. The fucking bitch will never see another Government job.
I filed 2 GAO Protests against the bitch and then sent them to 200 of the hacked email addresses. GAO Gene Dodaro covered up and directed that SDVOSB Latvian Connection LLC not be able to file any more GAO Protests for a year as retaliation for filing against that fucking bitch Hillary. Gene Dodaro – the Comptroller has been covering up for white collar criminal contracting offices and officers for 7 years that I have been filing GAO Protests against white collar criminals like Charles Wilder who is at Camp Arifjan and directs that U.S. Small Businesses like Latvian Connection LLC are to be circumvented. Well we beat Wilder and the white collar criminals in B-411489 and now the CORRUPT US ARMY doesn’t want to pay the GAO Protests cost for Latvian catching Wilder and the Contracting office in their white collar criminal acts. Not only is Camp Arifjan the birth-place of the ARMY CONTRACTING COMMAND due to taking $ 40 million in kick-backs and bribes to steer $ 5 BILLION in contracts.
Charles Wilder is no stranger to cover-ups. He covered up for $ 1 Bil in contracts that were not LOGCAP related to be awarded to Dyn Corp. On an on-going basis Wilder covers up for Prime contractors at Camp Arifjan like ITT ( Vectras, Excelis ), VSE, DynCorp, KBR, SAIC, DATAPATH, and others to steal their employees over-time wages and pocket the money. Wilder has received and covered up US Government Claims for those wages – yet he still continues to be an incompetent lawyer that covers up for this white collar criminal activity.
We have just caught Charles Wilder directing that W912D1-16-R-0016, W912D1-16-R-0017, and W912D1-16-R-0018 not be published on FEDBIZOPPS AFTER WILDER LOST TO LATVIAN CONNECTION LLC IN B-411489.
CAMP ARIFJAN IS A WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE AND CHARLES WILDER IS DIRECTING THAT LOCAL SDVOSB LATVIAN CONNECTION LLC IS BYPASSED IN VIOLATION OF FAR 19.202-2 AND FAR 19.202-4
19.202-2 Locating small business sources.
The contracting officer must, to the extent practicable, encourage maximum participation by small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business concerns in acquisitions by taking the following actions:
(a) Before issuing solicitations, make every reasonable effort to find additional small business concerns, unless lists are already excessively long and only some of the concerns on the list will be solicited. This effort should include contacting the SBA procurement center representative (or, if a procurement center representative is not assigned, see 19.402(a)).
(b) Publicize solicitations and contract awards through the Governmentwide point of entry (see Subparts 5.2 and 5.3).
19.202-4 Solicitation.
The contracting officer must encourage maximum response to solicitations by small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business concerns by taking the following actions:
(a) Allow the maximum amount of time practicable for the submission of offers.
(b) Furnish specifications, plans, and drawings with solicitations, or furnish information as to where they may be obtained or examined.
(c) Provide to any small business concern, upon its request, a copy of bid sets and specifications with respect to any contract to be let, the name and telephone number of an agency contact to answer questions related to such prospective contract and adequate citations to each major Federal law or agency rule with which such business concern must comply in performing such contract other than laws or agency rules with which the small business must comply when doing business with other than the Government.
CHARLES WILDER HAS BEEN TOLD BY THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THAT THE RULE OF 2 APPLIES AND THAT ALL SOLICITATIONS WITH A VALUE OF BETWEEN $ 3,000 AND $ 150,000 ARE TO BE RESERVED FOR US SMALL BUSINESSES ONLY.
CHARLES WILDER III STILL FAILS TO COMPLY AND HARMS SDVOSB LATVIAN CONNECTION LLC BY DIRECTING THIS RICO OPERATION AT CAMP ARIFJAN KUWAIT.
SIMILIAR RACKETEERING CRIMINAL OPERATIONS ARE OPERATING ON CAMP ARIFJAN FOR DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY AND WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS WILLIE PAYNE AND MATHEW WONCH STEERING CONTRACTS, ENGAGED IN MONOPOLY CONTRACT AWARDS, FAILING TO POST SOLICITATIONS TO FEDBIZOPPS.
THE US AIR FORCE IS COMMITTING SIMILIAR WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL OPERATIONS AT ALI AL SALEM AIR BASE 386 ECONS AND HIDING SOLICITATIONS AND AT AL JABER AIR BASE WHERE THE CONTRACT AWARDED TO LOUIS BERGER GROUP WAS ANOTHER RACKETEERING PENTAGON CRIME THAT THERE WAS NO COMPETITION. 322 ECONS IS A RACKETEERING CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE.
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS A WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE AND WHAT WE DISCOVERED WITH HILLARY CLINTON AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT’S CRIMINAL OPERATION IN KUWAIT, OMAN, SAUDI ARABIA, UAE, QATAR, AND BAHRAIN AND WORLD WIDE IS OCCURRING IN THE PENTAGON, GSA, AND 440 US FEDERAL AGENCIES.
IT IS OUR PLEASURE TO REPORT THESE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS AND WE WILL BE PUBLISHING ALL THE GAO PROTESTS EVER FILED AGAINST CAMP ARIFJAN AND AGAINST CHARLES WILDER IN DETAIL.
WE WILL BE MAKING AVAILABLE OPEN SOURCE GAO PROTESTS AGAINST THESE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL CONTRACTING OFFICES AND OFFICERS UNDER FREE SOURCE – BLUE CAMEL CONSULTING THAT THE GAO AND PENTAGON SEEM TO BE AFRAID OF BEING EXPOSED FOR WHAT THEY ARE……………………… A FALSE STORY FABRICATOR THAT HAS THE FUNCTION OF MIS INFORMING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND COVERING UP FOR WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL CONTRACTING OFFICERS.
FIRE GENE DODARO PRESIDENT TRUMP. HE IS A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT HARMING US SMALL BUSINESSES AND HARMING VETERANS THAT OWN BUSINESSES.