Big Red Car here. The Boss is concerned about the rate — pathetic rate, really — at which we are creating jobs in the United States. Isn’t everyone?
So, here is some pragmatic and real advice on a small first step only.
You will recall an earlier post — link here — which sliced and diced the number of small companies in the United States. This is very important because small business is the engine of job creation in the United States.
To recap, we have almost 27,000,000 small business from $100,000 revenue per year to $100,000,000 per year.
Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration was created by President Eisenhower in 1953 with a mission to protect the interests of small business in the United States.
The mission has evolved through the years to providing capital, contracts and counseling.
This link provides a quick and thorough insight into the SBA’s current status and funding. Read it here. <<<link
At the end of the day, the SBA program is essentially a loan guaranty program. They do much more than that but their most important potential impact on the employment marketplace is through government guaranteed access to capital.
A Modest Proposal
So here is a modest proposal to jump start job creation in America through the SBA.
1. The SBA typically runs out of loan guaranty funding at the end of Q1 of any given fiscal year. They run out of money — remember this is not “money”, it is loan guaranties.
2. Fund the SBA at a substantially higher level — no more real cash, more loan guaranties.
3. Take the top 25% of SBA lenders — whose collective default experience is almost zero — and give them a 100% loan guaranty v the current 90% loan guaranty.
4. Unleash the entrepreneurial zeal of the 27 million small businesses we have previously discussed.
5. If this expansion aided only one third of the small companies identified — say 9.000.000 companies and each created only 2 jobs we would have 18,000,000 new jobs.
Not hugely ambitious but no new infrastructure required, no new programs, no new real risks. Just a ballsy roll of the dice to create jobs.
JOBS Act
As we sit here today, the rules to implement the JOBS Act have still not been completed and published.
Let’s get this done. Now.
The JOBS Act was signed by the President in April of 2012 and we have not yet made it a reality.
Let’s get the rules published by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know? I’m just a Big Red Car!
