Small firms say regulation is fastest-growing concern
It’s been exactly three and a half years since Barack Obama was inaugurated, and here are two things that folks on the left have been saying about the economy every day since then: It’s Bush’s fault, and the problem is a lack of aggregate demand.
Here’s what small businesses have to say about the situation:
Chart by Dan Clifton at Strategas Research, via the AEIdeas blog
Keeping in mind that these are what small firms are “most concerned” about, meaning many likely have concerns to varying degrees about all three, a few things jump out at me:
1. In 2005, these three concerns accounted for a little more than one-third of small firms’ biggest worries. Today, they combine for about 60 percent. That suggests to me that these firms have less time and energy to devote to specific concerns about growing their business.
2. After shooting to the top in the second half of 2008, concerns about sales plateaued for about two years. Those concerns have been falling pretty steadily for the past year and a half.
3. Concerns about regulation, which more or less mirrored those about sales from 2005 to the start of 2008, began a steady ascent in 2009 and have almost doubled since then.
4. Concerns about taxes have remained fairly steady over these years.
5. At the beginning of 2009, the sum of concerns about regulation and those about sales was in the neighborhood of 40 percent — pretty much the same as today. But the division between them is starkly different: Whereas there were three small firms concerned about sales for every one worried about regulation then, now the two are dead even. In other words, worries about sales have been gradually replaced by worries about regulation.
6. If current trend lines continue, both taxes and regulation will soon rank higher among small firms’ concerns than sales.
Even if one wants to credit Obama’s “stimulus” package with the decrease in worries about sales — totally ignoring the effects of the Federal Reserve’s ultra-loose monetary policy — this graph clearly shows why improved demand hasn’t shifted the economy out of neutral: Increased regulation has stifled the recovery we might have had.
Small firms are generally credited with the bulk of job creation in this country. So the question this information puts to voters is: Which candidate do you expect to do more about the most pressing problems faced by small firms — Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
– By Kyle Wingfield
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575 comments Add your comment
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
July 20th, 2012
9:27 pm
yosef- If you are in moderation, how would we see your comment?
Bruno
July 20th, 2012
9:33 pm
Got anything for us, Reporter. PB liked your Shaggy selection last week.
obozo
July 20th, 2012
9:33 pm
Cool, we’re exchanging tunes tonight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tz4bbqgge8
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
July 20th, 2012
9:36 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C53QAuOoSgc
josef
July 20th, 2012
9:38 pm
REPORTER
It was the post where I made a link…I’m not a paranoiac on these things…
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
July 20th, 2012
9:40 pm
ok, yosef.
Whatever you say.
Bruno
July 20th, 2012
9:43 pm
josef–Send JamMan over, will you??
Bruno
July 20th, 2012
9:44 pm
Back at ya, Reporter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Zsp8jJ40M
Bruno
July 20th, 2012
9:48 pm
Wish I could afford to see these guys next week at Chastain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dTBTeoS0MA
MarkV
July 20th, 2012
10:07 pm
Michael H. Smith @7:42 pm: “Confession does the heart good but I’m not your priest and you have answered my question and you certainly cannot rebut my answer with that childish retort.”
I was not answering any of your questions, and nonsense does not require any rebuttal, only derision.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 20th, 2012
10:11 pm
Clearly, JDW, your reading comprehension skills are eroding even further than I thought.
There is NO WAY in the English language that you can construe that the net impact is less based on that statement. Obama has 50 more “economically significant” regulations than Bush did. Of AT LEAST $100 million in impact. There is ZERO possibility, given the usually negative impact of regulations, that anyone can conclude that the net impact is less.
Unless you’re severely deranged.
Are you?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 20th, 2012
10:12 pm
Hiya, josef!
Just a reminder that there is a limit of one link per post over here at Kyle’s place.
native
July 20th, 2012
10:23 pm
Mr. Wingfield:
The decreased concern about sales may reflect the halting recovery we are enjoying. The concern over regulation may reflect the uncertainty of all of us about what our disfunctional government (both parties) may produce eventually.
Jason
July 20th, 2012
11:46 pm
My concern isn’t about regulation. It might be annoying but you can easily find an attorney or a consultant to walk you through what you need to know. What concerns me most is the out of control patent system. As the owner of a small IT company, I have no idea if any of the products we invent are covered by some obscure patent granted by the government to huge companies like Apple or an overseas corporation like British Telecom. They’ve been granted patents for all kinds of trivial ideas and have shown they’re quite willing to use them to squash anyone who gets in their way… or for that matter, anyone who earns a few dollars to which they feel entitled.
Patent searches are costly but even worse, almost impossible to incorporate into the day to day operations of a business. Almost any trivial process that a business engages in could be found to violate a patent in someone’s huge portfolio. It’s like dancing drunk through a minefield. Unless this is reformed, innovation will be squshed and many who would have otherwise invented the technology of tomorrow will be too intimidated to even bother.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:03 am
Mr. Wingfield,
You claim that “Small firms are generally credited with the bulk of job creation in this country.”
Have you ever bothered to substantiate this claim, or do you just take it as true because both sides of the political divide seem to repeatedly make this claim?
While small businesses are certainly important to the cultural and economic fabric of America, their impact as job creators is being completely misrepresented for political gain by both Romney and Obama.
Please educate yourself! Small businesses (those with fewer than 20 employees) account for 21.5 million employees; bigger firms employ close to 100 million American workers (from http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html).
I invite you to visit politicdiscourse.com for more enlightening facts and opinions.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:22 am
If the census link does not work in the previous post, just google “census, small business employment.”
Look at the numbers. Even if you consider businesses with up to 100 employees as small, the larger firms still employ twice as many employees.
Jim H
July 21st, 2012
2:52 am
Kyle, Your effort to connect regs, sales, etc is virtually meaningless as are typical efforts by Repubs. For instance just what regs are involved that act as deterrents and would they apply across board to create deterrent effect? Just what taxes are you speaking off specifically that has the effect you claim? Are theses regs and taxes perceived or actual? How much of “fear” is result Repub misinformation? There is simply not enough hard data and way to many unknowns and variables to support your claims of some connection between these “fears.” Such claims affect your journalistic credibility. Jim
,
marko
July 21st, 2012
6:25 am
Many years years ago, the evil federal government , discovered that breathing coal dust is detrimental to the health of coal miners. Strict regulations were enacted to protect the miners from the life threatening consequences of exposure to coal dust. Today the scary sounding regulations are largely ignored. As a result, black lung is alive, well, and living in Kentucky.
Let’s assume business men find excessive regulations nearly as burdensome as drug dealers find our strict drug laws. the main difference being, we actually spend billions every year trying to enforce drug laws.
At some point it might occur to some of us that businesses aren’t growing because the middle classes have little disposable income left after meeting expenses.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward - Again)
July 21st, 2012
6:29 am
Jim, Kyle didn’t say that regulations are the fastest-growing concern of small business, or that taxes are as big a concern as sales.
Small business owners did.
Do you somehow know more about these businesses than do their owners?
Are we to substitute your wisdom for that of thousands of real Americans working in the real economy? That’s what your Klown Obozo wants to do–and the results are apparent in his 41 months of 8-10% unemployment, record numbers of folks on welfare, and annual $1.5 trillion deficits.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
7:51 am
j nes, you missed the point entirely (and Kyle omitted the operative word “new”).
Small businesses are responsible for the majority of NEW jobs, not total jobs.
And yes, that IS a fact.
Moon Mullins
July 21st, 2012
7:54 am
I agree with Gallager: you don’t need dam inspections. If your arse lives downstream from a dam, get your arse up there and inspect it yourself.
If you’re gonna eat meat, then you ought to make sure it’s clean.
You gonna drink water, make sure it come from a good well.
You gonna buy a car, crawl up under that bad boy and check ‘er out.
And, I could go on and on, but the fact of the matter is we have too damn many regulations and bureaucrats doing what we ought to be doing for ourselves. They didn’t have these dang regulations and inspectors back in the 19th century and if they were able to survive so can we.
You’re just too dang lazy sitting there on your comfortable couch waiting for your handout and for someone to taste your food for you. Man up and do it yourself.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
8:03 am
“Are theses regs and taxes perceived or actual?”
Every time I read a quote like this, I’m convinced that the people writing them have never owner nor operated a business in their lives, or simply live in a bubble in the middle of nowhere.
Get with it, people! This Federal government takes 1/3rd of your paycheck (those of you who actually earn one) each and every year, and they’d take closer to 2/3rds if they were charging you what it actually costs to run this country, and YOU DON’T THINK THERE ARE TOO MANY REGULATIONS OUT THERE?
What do you people think deficit spending is, for crying out loud?
So here’s the solution for you clueless people out there. No more ignorance! No more sitting back and getting stuff like clean air and water, and safe food and all the other things you love to tout about what government does for us – unless you pay for what they are actually worth.
No more deficit spending by this government in an attempt to hide it’s actual costs to the people who live off of this system. You want clean air and water – PAY FOR THEM! Increase taxes on everybody that enjoys these wonderful services at today’s cut rates of just 1/3rd of your paycheck. As of right now, we all pay the freight of this government at the going rate of 2/3rds of our paychecks – everybody – no exceptions!
Maybe then you’ll have a better appreciation of what all these regulations and costs are, and will stop this nonsense of “Are theses regs and taxes perceived or actual?”
The ignorance of the American public, largely in the form of liberals, is stunning in the extreme.
Jack
July 21st, 2012
8:04 am
The full implementaion of obamacare is the fastest growing concern for small businesses; and large businesses.
Jack
July 21st, 2012
8:05 am
Enter your comments here
implementation
JamVet
July 21st, 2012
8:19 am
…have been saying about the economy every day since then: It’s Bush’s fault, and the problem is a lack of aggregate demand.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Run, Kyle, run!
Hide Kyle, hide!
You elected the worst president in modern American history.
Cataclysmic bad. Th eman who left office is disgrace with insanely low approval ratings. 18% by Independents!
And now you don’t like that aftermath of what you wrought. All this talk about personal responsibility is just that. Talk…
It’s OK, he’s gone, your party has been humiliated and the devastation is slowly ebbing.
And you neocons are going to watch as your RINO gets a second dose of your putrid medicine.
Enjoy this summer and fall, fake conservatives, because I sure am.
Off to do some good in my community, you guys spit and spew here though…
JDW
July 21st, 2012
8:34 am
@tiberius…”There is NO WAY in the English language that you can construe that the net impact is less based on that statement. Obama has 50 more “economically significant” regulations than Bush did. Of AT LEAST $100 million in impact. There is ZERO possibility, given the usually negative impact of regulations, that anyone can conclude that the net impact is less.”
Guesss your brain doesn’t process both positive and negative impact. However the fact check guys can handle it and the fact is the current administration has been less of a drag on business than either Bush.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
8:41 am
JDW, in the history of this nation, the ratio of regulations that have had a negative financial effect on business vs. a positive financial effect on business is something on the order of 20:1.
Even being generous in the extreme and cutting that in half, the negative impact of 50 more significant-level regulations would have cost American businesses over $4 billion.
Yes, you really are deranged.
How Inciteful Is That!
July 21st, 2012
8:58 am
This one certainly bears repeating and repeating…
Misrepresentations, Regulations and Jobs.
The Truth! Republicans can’t handle the truth. The truth goes against their unfounded claims. So Republicans will do what they know how to do. Deny. Obfuscate. Deflect. Give their opinion as though it were fact.
Kyle claims rightfully that 0.4% of 1.5 million is about 6000 but Kyle uses this deflection to skirt the more statistically significant 99.6%. Then he goes on to tell us about the horrors of a 3.7% increase in electricity bills as a result of stripping out the mercury and dioxin, etc., from those emissions. How much increase in healthcare costs are associated with those emissions. What value do Republicans place on health. I spent $1936 last year on electricity, Kyle. I can afford an extra $71.63 per year if those owners of the coal-fired boilers deem it necessary to pass on that to customers. Meanwhile, I paid $2727 for ex-employer subsidized health insurance in 2010 and now I am paying $3490, for less. That 28% hike is of more concern to me so go ahead and give me your opinion that the increase is due to ObamaCare or increased regulation (hint, it’s not.).
@@
July 21st, 2012
10:46 am
I see AmVet didn’t bother reading that 54 page memo, Poor Boy presented in his link.
Nor did AmVet offer any “new thoughts” he may have gleaned from having done so.
The Business Roundtable sent Team Obama a long memo about the various policies and regulations that were inhibiting growth back in June of 2010.
businessroundtable.org/news-center/business-roundtable-letter-to-the-white-house-on-policy-burdens-inhibi/
No surprise here!
AmVet @ 8:19You elected the worst president in modern American history.
Cataclysmic bad. Th eman who left office is disgrace with insanely low approval ratings. 18% by Independents!
schnirt
j nes
July 21st, 2012
11:20 am
Tiberius,
You sir, are missing the point.
Mr. Wingfield failed to support his point (because it can’t be supported) and then you did the exact same thing by writing, “Small businesses are responsible for the majority of NEW jobs, not total jobs. And yes, that IS a fact.”
Where is your evidence for this. I gave you evidence to support my fact. You give nothing. Just because you capitalize the word “IS” in your statement, you must think people will just accept your baseless claims, and in the world of political blogs, some will. But if you want to convince reasonable people, you have to use reason.
Class dismissed.
Dirty Dawg
July 21st, 2012
11:22 am
The Business Roundtable is an accumulation of the top 1% of the 1%…a group of fellow board members whose primary concern is that their ‘retained.earnings’ tax rates (or capital gains if you prefer) – AKA the money they make on exercising stock options, doesn’t go up. And furthermore all you said, Kyle, was that small business was ‘concerned’ about regulation…where’s the beef? What we’ve got here is the result of the ‘anti-branding’ campaign that the Repug (opposite of libtard) propaganda machine has devoted their entire existence to. They have managed to convince people that this administration, and specifically this ‘illegitimate’ President, is not only inept but evil as well. Perceptions in this instance is their reality…and you’re simply feeding it.
What I wonder is come Nov 7, and Obama’s re-elected, what are you gonna do then? You’ll no longer have the goal/motivation of keeping him from a second term, so what now? Impeachment? Worse? Cause we damn well know that Repugs will never agree to cooperate to accomplish something that might be ‘a good thing’…it just ain’t in em. Is it Kyle?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
11:40 am
j nes, the FACT that small businesses are responsible for creating the majority of new jobs is the point made by BOTH political parties. They both agree, and both cite the data to back up their common views.
You were just picking on Kyle for not including the word “new” in his post.
So, yes, j nes, you were right. However, you were off-target in trying to pin Kyle on a perceived error that was just a dropped word.
Do you feel better now?
Or do you need a hug, too?
md
July 21st, 2012
11:43 am
That link supplied for number of employees per business does not work, but it is wrong or one is reading it incorrectly to think only 21 million are employed in corps under 20 people. Last I checked, there were 20+ million single person corps alone, which would equal that number.
ragnar danneskjold
July 21st, 2012
11:43 am
Several of our leftist friends affirm that regulations “create” jobs. Frederic Bastiat wrote about that lunatic position more than 150 years ago – academia calls that misbegotten belief the “broken window fallacy.” A quick Bing search will educate those of you who believe in this perverted Obamaism.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
11:43 am
“What I wonder is come Nov 7, and Obama’s re-elected, what are you gonna do then?”
We’ll just suffer through the second Obama recession, Dirty Dawg.
Just like you will.
Because he has no plan to continue this weak recovery that is any different than his first, failed plan, and he has nobody around him capable of convincing him he has to work with a divided Congress, rather than campaign against them, which hasn’t worked, either.
Gina
July 21st, 2012
11:51 am
I work for a large fast food restaurant company. I remeber shortly after Obama being elected, being at an annual meeting and our CEO stating that because of fears of the Obama administration and what would happen to the economy, they were suspending the building of any new restaurants. They would do any repairs needed to existing restaurants, but save the companies money for the lean times they were expecting.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
11:54 am
Tiberius,
You are making the same mistake as Kyle WIngfield by accepting what both sides are saying about job creation without checking it out for yourself.
For the second time you have responded without any evidence to support your claim–besides the fact that politicians on both sides say its true and cite data. Well, what data? Show me the data and I will believe you.
Go do some homework and try again.
In the meantime you can read this article that does show small businesses are hiring at higher rates than big firms–but notice the author does not (and cannot) make the claim that they are hiring more workers than big firms…because they aren’t.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-26/small-business-job-creation-is-stronger-than-we-think
Just because both sides say it does not make it a fact. Maybe you do not understand politics, but both sides have something to gain by convincing trusting fools like you that they are looking out for the little guy and small businesses.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:00 pm
md,
Nice try. But a single person firm is an independent agency that works for himself/herself. These people do not create jobs–they work for themselves.
There is potential for these people to grow a business and create jobs, but that is not usually their aim. They are just as likely to be hired by a firm–small or large.
Even if I were to grant that people who work for themselves are the product of small business job creation (which does not make sense), the numbers still favor big firms by 20,000,000.
md
July 21st, 2012
12:01 pm
Reading those numbers correctly, as of 2008 there were roughly 60 million employed by firms with less than 100 employees……….
md
July 21st, 2012
12:04 pm
“Nice try. But a single person firm is an independent agency that works for himself/herself. These people do not create jobs–they work for themselves”
Sorry, but one has to count them as one “job”…….they close their business, they count as an “unemployed”…….so the potential of unemployed would be another 21 million…..
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:11 pm
Right, but I thought we were talking about job creators. Independent workers are not considered the small businesses that politicians are claiming contribute to so much job creation.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:13 pm
md,
Do you consider a company with 99 employees a “small” business?
md
July 21st, 2012
12:14 pm
“Right, but I thought we were talking about job creators.”
We are……it matters not where that one job is created, it is a net gain. A good business climate without hindering regulations would also boost the increase of these single person entities, hence more job “creation”.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
12:21 pm
j nes, if you think you’re going to make a living wordsmithing every post you don’t agree with on this site, think again.
Small businesses create more new jobs than big businesses – period. Republicans agree. Democrats agree. Just about everybody on the planet agrees – except you.
Ever think about why that is?
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:22 pm
md,
I could be wrong but it seems like you and others are making the case that small businesses (and I will include those who work for themselves as small businesses) are creating more jobs than big firms. I think the evidence disproves this, but I want to move on to a more important point.
If the claim is true that small businesses (however you want to classify them) are creating so many more jobs than big firms, wouldn’t that defeat the other claim that regulations are killing the job creators.
You can’t have it both ways.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:24 pm
Tiberius,’
What I think about is why you choose not to prove what you believe with anything besides the “everyone else is doing it” defense.
Lemming.
j nes
July 21st, 2012
12:28 pm
Everyone once believed in a geocentric universe too.
md
July 21st, 2012
12:30 pm
“Do you consider a company with 99 employees a “small” business?”
Now that depends on what one is comparing it to…..compared to one with 5-10, no…..compared to one with 500+, definitely yes.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
July 21st, 2012
12:36 pm
“If the claim is true that small businesses (however you want to classify them) are creating so many more jobs than big firms, wouldn’t that defeat the other claim that regulations are killing the job creators. ”
You didn’t pass any logic courses when you were in school, did you, j nes?
Your question doesn’t take into effect what could be created if regulations were not hindering job creation.
Oh, and since you still insist on remaining ignorant about the job creation aspect of small businesses, this link to the SBA probably won’t interest you (found it in 30 seconds, btw). Oh, and be sure to NOT look at bullet points 2 and 4 under Item #2. You wouldn’t want to learn anything.
Class dismissed.
md
July 21st, 2012
12:38 pm
“If the claim is true that small businesses (however you want to classify them) are creating so many more jobs than big firms, wouldn’t that defeat the other claim that regulations are killing the job creators. ”
Right now, there isn’t much “creating” going on by anybody…..hence the stagnant unemployment numbers.
As for those regulations…..the aca does play a huge role when people really have no idea how it is going to effect the bottom line…..smart people have a tendency to plan for the unexpected, especially when their very survival depends on it (vs a gov’t that just takes more if it needs it).
It could be a regulation as simple as the credit card bill passed by the dems. The bill caused everybody’s rates to rise, including those of small business owners. To them, it is merely an increase of expenses…..which may take away just enough capital to hinder the hiring of another employee, or even cause one of those single person entities from being created if that person was counting on a credit card as part of their capital flow……….