New Laws... Bad for Small Business... Bad for Employment Outlook

With the coming of 2011, the battered small business sector has even more to contend with. Thousands of new laws and requirements have been concocted mainly by lobbyists paid for by larger corporations to corner the market and raise the barriers of competition. Just like on January 1st 2010, thousands of new laws are on the books. It sure pays to be politically "well connected"! The good news is there is a solution! And it's already on the books!

In 2008 we saw this scheme in action with the debacle created by the "toy bill", the  Consumer Improved Product Safety Act of 2008. Which was spurred primarily by Walmart's importation of defective and dangerous Chinese toys. The company that benefited the most from the bill was Walmart. Surprisingly or not, this was at the cost of many smaller toy businesses, craftsmen and entrepreneurs who simply had to leave the marketplace because of the inability to raise enough money to comply with the new rules and of course the threats of fines and jail time if they didn't. With this kind of success, more large businesses and corporations send lobbyist to continue this in their field. This is the trend in industry after industry. And not surprisingly, with the number of lobbyist at an all time high... the number of laws continue to increase proportionately.

Unfortunately, with over 70% of the employees in the US being employed by small business, this development doesn't bode well for future job opportunities.

As government has become more and more corrupted by this it is becoming increasingly easy for large businesses to prey upon smaller segments simply by calling up their pals in government, passing new laws and raising the barriers to competition. Then sicking which ever police force has jurisdiction on the competition. From haircuts, to cheese, to coffin making government has been used to restrict competition and in particular squeeze out the little guy. Boy, the mafia would be proud of these tactics!

Believe it or not our forefathers foresaw this. The US Constitution had certain built in features that restricted this kind of law making. But more importantly, they adamantly opposed a "Democracy" in favor of a Republic. Democracy was opposed because it represented "mob rule" which ultimately leads to tyranny, while a Republic representing an adherence to the Rule of Law of which the ultimate law being the US Constitution.

Quantitative Easing Part Two

This is really scary stuff. And if your investments are in dollars... you may want to think very hard about what is being said.With 40 or so countries currently tied to the dollar the effects of the dollar aren't being seen at home but the edges are fraying overseas. These countries are in effect, holding the dollar up...

Ben Bernacke June 2009 "The Fed will not monetize the debt!"



What is even more scary is those in Congress who think it would be a good idea for China to allow it's currency to float. This would be unbelievably inflationary at the retail end since most of the products Americans buy come from China. This would set the stage for what the Federal Reserve says can't happen.... Stagflation. Prices rising as the economy continues to stall. But this is very possible since we are relying heavily on imports to keep product prices low. With the price of products increasing fast and being sent overseas this will only add to the sour economy.