Monday, January 28, 2008

Gear Up For Globalization: Answers From Real People (#2)

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Question from:

Laurel Delaney, Founder and President, GlobeTrade:

"Do you think Ex-Im Bank will cut back or be more willing to extend loans to SMEs (that qualify on exports) this year in light of a possible recession?"

Answer from:

Harvey Bronstein, Senior International Economist, U.S. Small Business Administration, Washington
"As far as ExIm Bank, you'll have to talk with them.

As far as recession, the US is not in a recession, which is commonly defined as two quarters, that is a period of six months, over which the size of the US economy actually shrinks. For the third quarter of 2007, that is through Sept. 30, the economy actually grew almost 5%, far above the long-term average growth rate of the economy. Although growth will almost certainly be slower in the fourth quarter of 2007 than it was for the earlier part of the year, one quarter of slow growth does not equal "recession."

Concerning job creation, small businesses often create well over one-half of all net new jobs in the economy. Please refer to the link below on our website:

6. How many new jobs do small firms create?

Over the past decade, small businesses created 60 to 80 percent of the net new jobs. In the most recent year with data (2004), small firms accounted for all of the net new jobs. Firms with fewer than 500 employees had a net gain of 1.86 million new jobs. Large firms with 500 or more employees lost more jobs than they created, for a net loss of 181,122 jobs. For information on employment dynamics by firm size from 1989 to 2004, see www.sba.gov/advo/research/data.html#us.

On small business and exporting, 2007 will be a record year with small businesses racking up over $400 billion in exports. While in the third quarter of 2007 the economy grew 5%, exports grew by 19%. So long as the dollar remains weak and other countries' economies strong, the outlook for exports is bright."
Note from LD: Interesting "definition" of Export-Import (Exim) Bank at Answers.com.

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