New York SBDC Research Network

The Big Story: What’s the Fed To Do? The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee says the economy is expanding moderately. A former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation warns that the Fed is fueling a financial bubble. The Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and a Times columnist, Paul Krugman, battle it out. Josh Bivens says that the United Kingdom’s double-dip recession is proof austerity doesn’t work. Henry Blodget says it’s official: Keynes was right. Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez believe that increasing tax rates is part of a sensible deficit-reduction strategy. Jared Bernstein summarizes the economic impact of raising taxes on high-income households. Social Security’s projected shortfall date is moved up to 2033. President Obama slow jams the news. The Economy: The Shale Boom Russell Investments updates its state-of-the-economy dashboard. Among accountants, confidence in the global economy improved substantially in early 2012. USA Today reports that some econo...

The Small Business Authority, announced today the next live radio broadcast focusing on job outlook, economic trends related to hiring and employment trends with recent graduates. The show will broadcast from "The Small Business Authority Studio" at 77WABC Radio in New York. National listeners can also tune in at www.wabcradio.com and click listen live. The program, The Small Business Authority Hour, will be broadcast on Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. EDT. The show, dedicated to independent business owners across the United States, will feature guest Maury Harris, Managing Director and Chief Economist for the Americas for the UBS investment bank. Maury has been named numerous times to the Institutional Investor (II) All-America Research Team over the past two decades. In the January 2012 edition of Bloomberg Markets magazine, Dr. Harris and his team were cited as having the most accurate week ahead forecasts of U.S. economic data among 78 US forecasters over the two yea...

MakeUseOf How-To Articles How To Set Up A PayPal Account For Your Business April 26, 2012 By Tim Brookes PayPal has long been the leader in online payments. It offers a safe way for customers to pay for goods and services, as well move money around the globe. Most recently Chinese consumers are able to pay using PayPal. Especially for one-off purchases, I prefer PayPal to sharing my credit card details. It is also a good choice when you don't have your credit card handy. They offer services to students whereby parents set up an account with funds and the student gets a debit card they can use. For businesses, high-volume users are charged a fee of 1.9% This is a straightforward explanation of how you can set up an account with PayPal. It covers the various types of accounts and includes screen shots throughout.

Source: Congressional Research Service, via Federation of American Scientists A persistently high unemployment rate is of concern to Congress for a variety of reasons, including its negative consequences for the economic well-being of individuals and its impact on the federal budget (i.e., deficit growth due to lower revenue and higher expenditures). The unemployment rate was 9.5% when the economy emerged from the 11th postwar recession in June 2009. It climbed further to peak at 10.1% in October 2009. The rate then slowly declined before stalling at about 9.0% for most of 2011. Although the unemployment rate has resumed its decline, at slightly above 8.0% in early 2012, it remains at an historically high level. The slow rebound of the labor market has prompted calls for new measures to stimulate economic growth to avoid a so-called double-dip recession, such as occurred during the early 1980s. The economy contracted in July 1981, 12 months into the recovery from the Januar...

From the SBA: It’s almost time for National Small Business Week 2012 - and to kick things off we are launching a video contest. Each week I travel around the country and hear from business owners about how SBA has helped them start, grow and succeed. I’m often inspired by each business’ ingenuity, and it’s the small business owners I meet each week that are making communities strong and keeping America competitive. I want to share these stories, and so many more, with everyone. The video contest is an opportunity for small business owners and entrepreneurs to share their success stories with a larger audience and emphasize how important they are to their local economy. How to Participate: Videos can be submitted through Challenge.gov from 12pm EDT April 16 through 5pm May 11. Contestants should produce a short (1-2 minutes), original video to share their story. The list of Contest Rules provides additional details on the required video content and format. All eligible vid...

In order to form an LLC (Limited Liability Company) in the state of New York, there are a few steps you must follow before you are an established LLC. First, you must choose a business name for your LLC and check for availability. New York law requires that an LLC name contain the words "Limited Liability Company" or "LLC". Then, you must prepare and file articles of organization with the Department of State. After those papers have been submitted, you must publish for 6 consecutive weeks stating that you have formed an LLC. This process can require time to contact your county clerk's office to determine in which publications you are allowed to publish. Here at the NYS SBDC, we receive many inquiries about where new LLCs are allowed to publish about their small business, so we put together a list of all of the publications for every county in the state of New York. However, for those starting their LLC in the counties of Queens, New York, or Kings, must st...

SBA's April Web Chat to focus on keeping business ideas fresh. Thursday, April 26, 2012, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., ET WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration’s April web chat will highlight ways to keep your business ideas fresh. Do you have questions about how to sharpen your business ideas, how to organize your business or new ways to market your business? WHO: Octavia Kuransky, program development manager for SBA’s Central Alabama Women’s Business Center, will host the April web chat on “Small Business Spring Clean: How to Keep Your Business Ideas Fresh.” A small business owner in her own right, Kuransky will answer questions about how to get a fresh business outlook for 2012. WHAT: SBA’s web chat series provides small business owners with an opportunity to discuss relevant business issues online with experts, industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Chat participants have direct, real-time access to the web chats via questions they submit online...