America Looks Over Her Shoulder and
Washington Starts to Act

Despite it being an election year and a period in American history of great political divide, the prospect that Washington, DC might actually get something done to make the path easier for nascent entrepreneurs and young firms is looking more promising. This past week saw lots of activity at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. First, on January 31st –the one-year anniversary of both the White House Startup America Initiative and the private-sector Startup America Partnership—President Barack Obama sent a “Startup America Legislative Agenda” to Congress. The following day, I took part in an official Senate roundtable on Capitol Hill focused on developing more high-growth entrepreneurship legislation.

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State of Entrepreneurship: A Roadmap for State Growth
Heading into what promises to be a heated general election year, the Kauffman Foundation has turned the focus of its third annual State of Entrepreneurship Address back to the state and local level. Later this week at the National Press Club, Benno Schmidt, the Foundation’s interim president, will present “A Roadmap for State Growth,” touching on a number of proposed recommendations regarding state and local laws and regulations—that won’t break policymakers’ budgets. [More]

CBO Projects Sluggish Recovery Through 2013
Expect more-of-the-same when it comes to the performance of the US economy for the next two years—with slow economic growth and unemployment rates remaining over eight percent. [More]

Improving the Environment for Entrepreneurship
A couple months ago, Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) were joined by Steve Case, AOL co-founder and CEO of Revolution LLC, as they introduced the Startup Act—based largely off research and recommendations released by the Kauffman Foundation.Last week, the trio were together again at the Brookings Institution. [More]

Economics Bloggers Outlook Bleak, but Improving
Despite a continued cloudy view of the U.S. economy, some top economics bloggers are beginning to see a ray of hope on the horizon. According to the latest Kauffman Economic Outlook: A Quarterly Survey of Top Economics Bloggers, 14 percent of respondents now believe the economy is “strong and growing” or “strong with uncertain growth,” an improvement over last quarter. [More]

A Look Back at Innovation Daily
Each day, Innovation Daily checks the pulse of global innovation-- courtesy of Innovation America. Here, we take a look at a handful of relevant stories it compiled last week. [More]

This Week in Entrepreneurship Policy
Headlining this week is the Kauffman Foundation's third annual State of Entrepreneurship Address, “A Roadmap for State Growth.” The address will be held at the National Press Club and presented by Benno Schmidt, interim president of the Kauffman Foundation, who will discuss effective, low-cost ways of promoting entrepreneurship and innovation at the state level. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a number of hearings are scheduled that may be of interest to readers, including a Joint Economic Committee hearing on reauthorizing the payroll tax cut. [More]