How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?

Ravi Deva wrote: On 9/20/07 11:27 AM, Ravi Deva wrote: -------------------- Thank you for your personal response. I wasn't expecting any kind of acknowledgment from anyone, but it gives me a glimmer of hope that quite possibly some is at-least willing reach out and hear the opinions of the masses in an uncontrolled setting. Who knows I might even vote for Mr.Obama, he seems to be the most viable candidate out there right now in the Democratic party, plus he represents Illinois my home state. Thank you, Ravi On 9/20/07 10:56 AM, Barack Obama wrote: -------------------- Thanks for participating in Barack's question on LinkedIn Answers – we apologize for the delay in response. We received an incredible number of thoughtful answers, and our campaign will continue to review all of these answers in the days ahead. Barack is committed to helping small businesses and believes they are at the heart of the American economy. He is committed to expanding opportunities and easing the everyday pressures so many businesses face by cutting their health care costs, improving access to capital, and investing in innovation and development. He plans to fix our health care crisis and enable more small businesses to provide affordable care to their employees. He will expand loan programs for small businesses and create a national network of public-private business incubators. He also will invest in women-owned businesses, increase minority access to capital, increase supports for businesses in rural areas, and work to close the digital divide that limits the growth potential of many urban and rural small businesses. We appreciate immensely your willingness to share your insights and suggestions on these issues and your help in achieving these goals. For more information on Barack ideas for improving America visit: www.barackobama.com/issues Thanks, Scott & Becky @ Obama HQ On 9/13/07 9:41 AM, Ravi Deva wrote: -------------------- For small business to truly survive - create a level playing field for all entrepreneurs and businesses. Just because big business has the deep pockets to hire lobbyists and propel their agenda through the executive branch is the biggest impediment for the survival of small business. Create an environment where there is oversight in the real sense for "MEGA" corporations so that they cannot create barriers for free and fair competition with their smaller rivals with the help of big government. Small business does not require sops and platitudes, most of the people who start small businesses do so not because big business is incapable of providing new services, but because it will "NOT" provide new services in a reasonable manner and also because it is too busy trying to protect its turf. Fix the Financial System and Commerce Policy! We are the world's biggest economy, but our fiscal and commerce policy is worse than that of the under-developed nations, not because we do not have the resources, but because we do not have the will to do the right thing. We have been lurching from one financial disaster since almost the last 25years - the S&L crisis, Stock market crash '87, business downturn and internet bubble '90's, and now the real estate and mortgage crisis. What gives? You really don't expect us to believe that big government didn't see this coming to prevent it from happening. Not that I want big government to interfere in everything, but it still does so for the most useless of scenarios so it might as well do so in things that matter! Stop the outsourcing and off shoring of everything otherwise in the long term the entire country will be a hollow shell with no economic activity. How can a small business thrive in the this country when it has to abide by the laws on the this state against a business that thrives in an environment of chaos overseas, without any regard to US protections for safety, environment, respect for personal dignity, etc. That is not fair competition. What will large corporations do next when the cost for off shoring and outsourcing to China and India become sky-high. Move those services and manufacturing to the poverty stricken African continent or some other low cost place because they can do it for cheaper than the Indians or Chinese? Think of the long term when making decisions not just for the duration of your - Presidential Term! Ravi Question Details: -------------------- How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?

Catching Up

It's been a while since I last blogged, I'll try to reproduce some of my thoughts from this missing period.

Ravi

Irrational Exuberance or Stupidity! Part - 2

Last week as I started to write about a - bubble of various sorts, forming across the entire gamut of the Indian economy the – sub-prime mortgage mess started to unravel in the US.

Media outlets and various financial organizations expressed shock and disbelief at the ramifications of the situation here in the US. It is interesting that none of them decided to interview the mastermind of the current fiscal mess his holiness - Mr. Alan Greenspan, under whose watchful eye the entire current sub-prime fiasco has it's genesis!

Yes, Mr.Greenspan is a very erudite and knowledgeable person; he is also the architect of this current mess. Mr.Greenspan had the knowledge and the tools at his disposal to prevent this situation in the sub-prime mortgage market as well as the deeper credit crunch that is making ripples across the globe. In fact if memory serves me and possibly other folks correctly this is not the first time Mr.Greenspan can be faulted for his acts of fiscal omissions - The Great Internet Bubble of the 20th Century also happened on his watch!

Now in India we have Prime Minister - Dr. Man Mohan Singh, who also is a very erudite fellow as well as an economist like Mr.Greenspan. Again if my memory serves me correctly the last time India as a country was almost at the doorstep of financial insolvency, this same Dr. Singh was at the head of the finance portfolio. Wonder if this is just a coincidence or fate as they say in India?

Lets look at some other interesting parallels.

Things that happened on Alan Greenspan's watch.

Black Monday 1987.

Internet pump and dump.

Beginning and end of Real-estate boom.

Super hot and sizzling economy, followed by busts and boom.

Overall decline in manufacturing economy!

Things that happened when Man Mohan Singh was lead Economic Advisor to PM, was FM, or PM himself.

India close to financial insolvency 1990.

Indian stock market pump and dump 1991/92.

Indian real-estate market becomes super hot.

Super hot and sizzling economy, followed by busts and boom.

Over all decline in manufacturing economy.

What happens next in India?

Every time I talk of the above scenario I am told to stop being a naysayer, and look at the rapid strides the service sector economy has made and the growth of employment etc. that will eventually create a trickle down effect that will uplift the Indian masses. Everyone tells me about the transition of global economies, from being agrarian to industrial manufacturing to eventually service driven.

TO WHICH I SAY CRAP! STOP THIS NONSENSE, FUELED BY PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL DRIVEL!

SHOW ME ONE, ONLY ONE ECOMOMY THAT HAS SUSTAINED ITSELF ON A SERVICE ECONOMY WITH A GROWING POPULATION!

World War I & II saved the British Empire from being a footnote in history 50years ago. Japan has seen it's best days behind it. The Asian Tigers on the Pacific Rim are barely managing to keep their heads above water from the onslaught of the Chinese Tsunami. Countries on the African and South American continent barely register on any economic indicator or can hope to do so in the near future. Argentina and Brazil have never lived up to their potential despite the billions of dollars pumped into them in the past. Except for South Africa which has some economic activity the rest of the African continent it seems will be battling a human medical catastrophe.

Granted some of my predictions are a little extreme, but with a looming global recession, it would not take much for those predictions to come true!

Lets not forget about the nature of the Internet and electronic specialty service economy which moves at the speed of light is also susceptible to an equally rapid transformation into a commodity service that tends to flatten and remove various hierarchical barriers to entry for most service businesses. This not only reduces margins it automates and eliminates various functions that may have been essential earlier, and in turn may have been a source of wide scale employment.

The speed of the service economy is very rapid and by nature disruptive; it has a cannibalizing effect on general business and society as a whole. This is due to the constant search for greater economies of scale and optimization of efficiencies. We have witnessed this on a wide scale level during the dotcom meltdown. The same happens and has happened in an agrarian and industrialized economy, but at a much slower pace. When this reduction in economic activity does happen there is already enough ancillary business activity that has been created that it smoothes out the usual and periodic cyclical business and economic ups and downs.

My next post will touch on the immediate and near term ramifications of this service economy.