Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Breaking Into Agriculture: Episode 2, Small Scale Multi & Monocrop Farming

With the Breaking Into series we will explore US agriculture, the least complex, the most complex, the failures, frustrations, sustainability, costs, and future of each topic that makes up modern agricutlure. On this episode we are going to explore a more complex, yet still small, system of farming for profit, Small Plot Farming. Small Plot […]

Breaking Into Agriculture: Episode 1, Market Gardens

With the Breaking Into series we will explore US agriculture, the least complex, the most complex, the failures, frustrations, sustainability, costs, and future of each topic that makes up modern agricutlure. On this episode we are going to explore one of the more simple ways to get into professional agriculture, Market Gardens. Market Gardens by another name […]

NFIB small business optimism vs. reality

(Better late than never…Dan) This is a really slow news week – on the economy!  My retrospective on the Trump Presidency is nearly complete and will be published tomorrow morning. In the meantime, here is a brief note on the Small Business Optimism index which was updated for December last week, showing a steep decline […]

Business income or personal income

In response to Small businesses and tax cuts and reporting by Daniel Becker, reader Betty, a long time small business owner and not a sole proprietor herself in one of the richer towns of MA with a median income over $180,000 , asked: … I’ve always been baffled by the Republican complaint that it would […]

Small businesses, tax cuts, and reporting

 I sometimes get the ‘eyes rolling’ reaction from people in my social sphere when I insist that at least linking to  original documents is important, and that someone needs to follow up on what an author says someone else says (as a way to gain traction and authority status for their own writing, such as […]

An opinion on Thumtack.com/GW University Small Business Political Survey

I was forwarded an early look at a survey that was produced by George Washington University’s School of Political Management in conjunction with Thumbtack.com. As some readers know, I am an honest to goodness small business owner. Two business actually and they are as different as say a private practice physician and a florist. So…………I […]

Two Important Op-Ed Pieces Today

I want to draw AB readers’ attention to two of the most important op-ed pieces I’ve read in a while.  They address entirely different, but profoundly important, matters. One is Elizabeth Warren’s piece today in Politico, called Stop riggingsystem against small business. The other is Bill Keller’s column today in the New York Times, called […]

Where’s Daniel Becker when you need him??

‘Small business representative’ still has some meaning for people, but of course the term is gamed constantly in the political arena. Via Alternet comes this example: This morning, NPR’s Yuki Noguchi wanted to know how an ordinary small business owner feels now that the Obama health care law has been upheld. So she turned to […]

Hey, didn’t the GOP say it cared about deficits?

by Linda Beale  Hey, didn’t the GOP say it cared about deficits? Just when you think those on the radical right had gone about as far as they could go without recognizing their own zaniness, those in Congress have revived their version of a tax “reform” for businesses.  It was first proposed in 2009–as an […]