Small business group calls for extension to New Enterprise Allowance - stockmarketwire.com
The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) should be extended to encourage more budding entrepreneurs to use the scheme, the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group (APPSBG) said.
Current rules allow jobless entrepreneurs to apply for funding of £1,274 plus access to a guaranteed loan of up to £1,000 – but only after they have been claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) for six months.
Now the APPSBG is calling for the New Enterprise Allowance to be made available from day one of signing onto JSA and for funds to be available for a full year to provide £3,692 plus the guarantee of a loan of up to £2,000. The APPSBG believes that this would encourage more budding entrepreneurs to set up in business, in turn helping to boost the economy and stem high unemployment.
The APPSBG is concerned that the current funding is too low to enable budding entrepreneurs to get viable business ideas off the ground – a view supported by figures from the FSB, which show it costs 14 per cent of small businesses between £2,500 and £5,000 to set up.
Also in the new report, ‘Breaking down the barriers to entrepreneurship', the APPSBG is calling on the Government to: Support enterprise education in schools and colleges by incorporating it into the statutory curriculum Create a one-stop-shop to provide advice and support, such as a Small Business Administration Adopt and put in place the Breedon recommendations to bolster alternative sources of finance Provide a support network for older entrepreneurs to ensure that Jobcentre Plus builds relationships with women's networks to promote mentoring for women
The report comes following an Entrepreneurship Inquiry launched by Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to see how the barriers to self-employment can be removed and entrepreneurs can be supported in setting up their business in difficult economic times.
John Walker, National Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said: "As this report shows, breaking down the barriers to entrepreneurship is crucial if we are to turn the economy around. We all know that unemployment is worryingly high. That is why it is even more important to make it more attractive to go it alone, and encourage those that have a great business idea to make it a reality. The current New Enterprise Allowance does not achieve this. But if the Government extends the scheme to make funds available and at higher rate, more budding entrepreneurs will be encouraged to become self-employed."
Brian Binley MP, Chair of the APPSBG, said: "What this report shows is the importance of nurturing business and developing the culture to enable it to thrive. Not only must we create the conditions to help ensure that the education and financial systems are available to supply potential entrepreneurs, but society embraces the enterprise culture whose full potential is yet to be explored is these difficult times."
Karen Freyer, Managing Director of the Creative society, said: "Since 2009 we have been pushing for the reintroduction of the Enterprise Allowance Scheme but as it stands it does not go far enough. The FSB is absolutely right to push for its extension to help reduce unemployment and drive economic recovery"
Shaun Williams, Director of Corporate Affairs at Leonard Cheshire Disability said: "It is vital more disabled people are given the funding support they need to increase self-employment opportunities. Extending the New Enterprise Allowance scheme to make funds available at higher rate will enhance their chances of success. Our research shows a quarter of disabled people in work are self-employed as this is often the only viable option."
Richard Morris, founder and CEO of Heropreneurs, the only independent military charity to support armed forces leavers and veterans into business, said: "What is clear from this report is that entrepreneurs urgently need more financial support to enable them to start up and meet operational costs. The barriers which block the emergence of new and small banks must be rapidly taken down because we need more loan funds not less. It is bad for the UK economy that these barriers remain."
Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
As business suffers, David Cameron retreats - Daily Telegraph
Taken together, these two factors deter employers from recruiting new staff and hinder businesses from developing the higher productivity on which sustainable growth depends. And far from making things better, the past decade has seen a steady increase in the level and complexity of employment law. Beecroft’s report would have reduced the amount of regulation in a comprehensive and principled way – and, by doing so, would have introduced new certainty and confidence.
That confidence matters, because businesses are far too short of it at present. British businesses collectively hold about £750 billion in cash. To reach its fiscal targets, the Government needs a steep rise in investment – the rate at which they spend that money. Speaking last week, David Cameron said that he leads “a Government resolutely committed to being on the side of enterprise, entrepreneurs, businesses large and small, wealth creation of all types and descriptions”. To many, that is clearly not the case. A full-blooded Beecroft Review would reassure such people, just as a pale imitation would reinforce their concerns.
Taking a step back, today’s news adds to a sense of unease about what the Coalition is actually trying to achieve. This is a Government that claims to have deregulation at its heart, fired by a Tory belief in free markets and a Lib Dem distrust of central direction. It has a policy to stop the growth in regulation (so-called “One In, One Out”) and to reduce the stock of it (the “Red Tape Challenge”). In general, it is supposed to have rejected an old approach based on more debt and higher state spending, and to be looking for real growth via higher productivity.
Recently, however, we have seen a weakening in the Government’s position. Last autumn, the Chancellor pushed his deficit reduction target from the end of this Parliament into the middle of the next. Last week, the Prime Minister hinted at new borrowing to finance infrastructure – exactly the way that Gordon Brown justified his record spending increases. At the same time, the retreat over the NHS has cast a long shadow over the Coalition’s commitment to public-service reform, and its changes to the planning system are taking much longer than expected.
In recent days, the Prime Minister has urged his European counterparts to take action by saying that the eurozone is “at a crossroads”. He should hold his own Government to account in the same terms. Given the challenges facing the country, it is surprising that he needed an independent report to propose changes to employment law at all. Now that he has it, it will be remarkable if he does not implement it – and then keep up the pressure.
Mr Cameron is right that the country’s basic economic problems are due to poor productivity rather than lack of government action. He will know, however, that the contrary view is growing in popularity (and, indeed, capable of winning elections in other countries). The more his policies focus rigorously and consistently on improving the efficiency of the economy, the more successful they will be.
Andrew Haldenby is director of the independent think tank Reform
Money the Key Issue as NATO Meets in Chicago - Der Spiegel
The timing could not have been worse. Just as the heads of state and government from NATO's 28 member states were assembling in front of Chicago's football stadium on the shores of Lake Michigan for a group photo, thunder began booming over the city as a storm rolled in. Quickly, President Barack Obama's team switched to plan B and moved everyone into the conference room instead. Host Obama stood on the red carpet surrounded by his guests. "Wave," he said. And they did.
It was designed to be an image of harmony. Everyone together. That is the message that Obama wants to send from this NATO summit, the largest ever. The US president, after all, is in the middle of a tough re-election campaign and the summit, located in Obama's hometown of Chicago, was designed to give him a boost.
But Obama faced battles on several fronts over the weekend. For one, he faces the possibility of lasting friction with Russia after NATO on Sunday declared its European missile shield to have reached "interim capability," an important step on the road to full coverage planned for 2018. The shield is to protect Europe from possible attacks from countries like Iran, but Russia views the weapons system as a limitation of its own nuclear deterrence and has thus sought for years to prevent its completion.
Afghanistan too is a significant focus of the summit, which continues on Monday. When he was elected four years ago, Obama promised that he would bring the war against the Taliban to an end. Some 1,900 American soldiers have lost their lives in the decade-long fight and the mission costs US taxpayers $100 billion (€78 billion) each year.
Key Question
It is a bill that the White House would like to significantly reduce. And it would also like more help from alliance partners in keeping NATO up and running as well. Indeed, with European governments having reduced their military budgets continually since the end of the Cold War, the US share of NATO financing has grown to 75 percent. Now that the debt crisis has put additional pressures on both Europeans and Americans to slash expenditures, alliance funding is the key question underlying the meeting.
Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hinted at the brewing frustration in Washington a year ago. "The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the US Congress -- and in the American body politic writ large -- to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense," Gates said in his final policy speech as head of the Pentagon last June.
Obama seeks to cut US defense expenditures by $500 billion over the next 10 years. Furthermore, should the Democrats and Republicans in Congress not be able to reach a deficit reduction deal by the end of this year, automatic cuts would be triggered in January 2013 which would result in a further $500 billion being withheld from the Pentagon in the next decade.
In a guest commentary for the Chicago Tribune, Mitt Romney, Obama's Republican challenger in November presidential elections, accused the president of weakening the NATO alliance. "The administration's irresponsible defense cuts are clearing the way for our partners to do even less," Romney wrote. "An alliance not undergirded by military strength and US leadership may soon become an alliance in name only."
'Smart Defense'
Obama, for his part, sought to demonstrate strength despite potential funding shortfalls. "In these difficult economic times, we can work together and pool our resources," Obama said during the summit. "NATO is a force multiplier, and the initiatives we will endorse today will allow each of our nations to accomplish what none of us could achieve alone."
The message is clear. The US is no longer prepared to be the alliance's military backstop -- as the only member state with requisite weapons systems. Instead, the idea is to develop common military systems and defense products. NATO refers to the concept as "Smart Defense." Just how it might work -- more military clout for less money -- remains to be seen however.
At issue are some 20 projects, ranging from the acquisition of helicopters to joint command headquarters. The plan known as "Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS)," for example, foresees the purchase of five drones from the US at a total price of €1 billion. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged in Chicago that alliance leaders had approved "a robust package of more than 20 multinational projects to provide the capabilities we need at a price we can afford."
Underneath the surface, however, it becomes clear that harmony is not universal when it comes to these joint projects. Seventeen countries, for example, signed onto the AGS project back in 2007. Since then, however, four have backed out after defense budgets were slashed back home. Germany is one of the countries that remains committed to the project, but the more alliance partners back out, the more expensive it becomes for Berlin and the others who remain. Furthermore, Germany's signature to the project was conditional and parliament in Berlin has yet to approve the funding.
Pressure on Berlin
Meanwhile, NATO has upped the pressure on Germany to increase its commitment to the alliance by reducing the amount of say the parliament in Berlin has when it comes to NATO missions overseas. Currently, any foreign military mission involving German troops needs the approval of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag. But that also means that, should parliament withhold such approval, the effectiveness of joint NATO weapons systems dependent on German technicians is significantly reduced.
The Brussels-based alliance is now pressuring Berlin to reduce the amount of say parliament has when it comes to NATO missions. Alliance leaders point out that the deployment of joint weapons systems cannot be made dependent on the approval of a single nation's parliament. Berlin will have little choice but to at least consider the request, to avoid isolation within the alliance.
The real success of the NATO summit, however, will be decided on Monday. That is when member-state leaders are to address the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan and its consequences. Only then will it become clear whether the summit will provide Obama with the hoped-for boost to his re-election campaign.
Social Media Stocks Gaining Attention as a Result of Facebook's IPO - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -05/21/12)- Facebook's IPO has brought a lot of attention to social media stocks in recent weeks. With Facebook's IPO being reported as oversubscribed some investors have been hoping to profit from other already-public social media stocks. "I do sense some 'temporary' momentum for these related social media stocks," stated Arvind Bhatia, financial analyst covering Facebook for Sterne Agee. Five Star Equities examines the outlook for companies in the Social Media Sector and provides equity research on Linkedin Corporation (LNKD) and Pandora Media Inc. (P).
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Social media stocks, which had benefited recently from the interest in Facebook's IPO, suffered on Friday as the Facebook IPO had a rockier start than expected. Investors who are interested in a piece of Facebook may also take a hard look at companies who have the potential to be acquired by the social media giant. "LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora, Yelp ... these are all potential acquisition bait for Facebook," Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson said. "If Facebook is going to trade at a premium -- like $150 billion to $200 billion, why not buy the fish and the bait, too?"
Five Star Equities releases regular market updates on Social Media Sector so investors can stay ahead of the crowd and make the best investment decisions to maximize their returns. Take a few minutes to register with us free at www.FiveStarEquities.com and get exclusive access to our numerous stock reports and industry newsletters.
LinkedIn is a professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories. The company reported revenue of $188.5 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, an increase of 101% compared to the first quarter of 2011, and the 7th straight quarter of greater than 100% year-over-year growth.
Pandora Media is an Internet radio in the United States. As of January 31, 2012, it had over 125 million registered users. The Music Genome Project and its playlist generating algorithms predict listener music preferences, play music content suited to the tastes of each individual listener and introduce listeners to music they will love
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