Economy, Small Business | featured news

The measure's passage ends months of partisan delay. The wait for action was agonizing for small-business owners, many of whom have been seeking loans for months in the tight credit market. Ending months of partisan delay, the House gave final passage Thursday to a small-business tax and lending assistance bill, handing Democrats a legislative victory on the economic issues central to the midterm elections.

President Obama held his first full-scale White House news conference in three months and the first of the fall campaign season. He announced his promotion of the White House economist, Austan D. Goolsbee, to succeed Christina Romer as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, and also addressed other issues of the day, including the Middle East peace talks and the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts.

In the wake of a new jobs report showing increased unemployment, President Obama today said the steps his administration has taken to improve the economy are working, but not fast enough. He called on Congress to pass a small business bill and said he would announce next week a broader set of ideas to accelerate job creation.

The Obama administration is considering a range of new measures to boost economic growth, including tax cuts and a new nationwide infrastructure program, according to people familiar with the discussions. On the list of possible actions: additional tax cuts for small businesses beyond those included in a $30 billion small-business lending bill before the Senate. It's not clear what those tax breaks would target or how much they might cost in lost revenue to the government.

Signs of a recovery in the U.S. labor market grew on Wednesday as data on the private sector labor market showed job gains for the first time since January 2008.

Somebody in Wisconsin doesn't like President Barack Obama all that much.

An unnamed company has paid for a billboard along Highway 41 in Oshkosh that reads, "Impeach Obama."

The tagline says: "America's small businesses are failing; help us spread the message."

It was paid for by an unnamed company represented by Tom Wroblewski who told the AP the sentiment

President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Monday will announce administration plans to make lending to small businesses more attractive, two senior administration officials said.