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The article offers information on various challenges that affect efforts to determine the relationship between economic growth and inequality in the U.S. Challenges include the direction of causation, data quality and consistency, and removed variable bias. Also mentioned are the lack of variation in the data and the assumption that the growth-inequality relationship is stable throughout countries.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) administers several programs to support small businesses, including loan guaranty programs, disaster loan programs, management and technical assistance training programs, and federal contracting programs. Congress has always been interested in these programs, primarily because they are viewed as a means to stimulate economic activity and create jobs. That interest has become acute in recent months due to the adverse economic impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the national economy, particularly on small businesses. For example, legislation has been enacted that has dramatically expanded the SBA's authority to provide loans to small businesses adversely affected by COVID-19. This report examines the economic research on net job creation to identify the types of businesses that appear to create the most jobs. That research indicates that small businesses tend to create more jobs than large businesses during economic expansions and lose more jobs during and immediately following recessions. The SBA has reported that preliminary economic data indicate small businesses have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic research also suggests that business startups play an important role in job creation, but have a more limited effect on net job creation over time because fewer than half of all startups are still in business after five years. However, the influence of small business startups on net job creation varies by firm size. Startups with fewer than 20 employees tend to have a negligible effect on net job creation over time whereas startups with 20-499 employees tend to have a positive employment effect, as do surviving younger businesses of all sizes (in operation for one year to five years). This report examines the possible implications this research might have for Congress and the SBA. For example, although the current focus is on job retention and assisting as many small businesses as possible to survive the current economic downturn, this report examines the potential consequences of targeting SBA non-COVID-19-related lending assistance to small businesses that are the most likely to create and retain the most jobs. In addition, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the SBA use outcome-based program performance measures, such as how well the small businesses do after receiving SBA assistance, rather than focusing on output-based program performance measures, such as the number of loans approved and funded. GAO has argued that using outcome-based program performance measures would better enable the SBA to determine the impact of its programs on participating small businesses. Given congressional interest in job creation, this report examines the potential consequences of adding net job creation as an outcome-based SBA program performance measure. This report also examines the arguments for providing federal assistance to small businesses, noting that policymakers often view job creation as a justification for such assistance whereas economists argue that over the long term federal assistance to small businesses is likely to reallocate jobs within the economy, not increase them. Nonetheless, most economists support federal assistance to small businesses for other purposes, such as a means to correct a perceived market failure related to the disadvantages small businesses experience when attempting to access capital and credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report presents the current status of the trust funds, projections for the factors in real economic growth, and how projections for these growth factors are estimated to affect the program's financial status of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. Topics include projected growth in total employment, and change in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The article offers information on the U.S.trade deficit and the impact of changing oil prices. Topics discussed include decrease in share of petroleum products in the overall U.S. trade deficit; the demand for the supply of energy-related products; and slowdown in the rate of economic growth in China and India. Also mentions about the U.S. imports of energy-related petroleum products such as crude oil.

The article focuses on the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the net job creation in the U.S. Topics include the role of SBA in supporting small businesses through financial programs, the impact of SBA to the economy and job creation in the country, and how business startups boost job creation and their limited effect on net job creation.

The article presents a U.S. Congressional Research Service report which examines arguments both for and against the continuation of the Historically Underutilized Business Zone Empowerment Contracting (HUBZone) program. Topics discussed include the HUBZone program's structure and operation, analysis of the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) administration of the program, and HUBZone-related legislation.

The article reports that the Historically Underutilized Business Zone Empowerment Contracting (HUBZone) program gives participating small businesses located in areas with low income, high poverty, or high unemployment. Its objectives are job creation and increased capital investment in distressed communities.

A striking feature of the modern U.S. economy is its growing openness--its increased integration with the rest of the world. The attention of tax policymakers has recently been focused on the growing participation of U.S. firms in the international economy and the increased pressure that engagement places on the U.S. system for taxing overseas business. Is the current U.S. system for taxing U.S. international business the appropriate one for the modern era of globalized business operations, or should its basic structure be reformed?. The current U.S. system for taxing international business is a hybrid. In part, the system is based on a residence principle, applying U.S. taxes on a worldwide basis to U.S. firms while granting foreign tax credits to alleviate double taxation. The system, however, also permits U.S. firms to defer foreign-source income indefinitely--a feature that approaches a territorial tax jurisdiction. In keeping with its mixed structure, the system produces a patchwork of economic effects that depend on the location of foreign investment and the circumstances of the firm. Broadly, the system poses a tax incentive to invest in countries with low tax rates of their own and a disincentive to invest in high-tax countries. In theory, U.S. investment should be skewed toward low-tax countries and away from high-tax locations. Evaluations of the current tax system vary, and so do prescriptions for reform. According to traditional economic analysis, world economic welfare is maximized by a system that applies the same tax burden to prospective (marginal) foreign and domestic investment so that taxes do not distort investment decisions. Such a system possesses capital export neutrality, and could be accomplished by worldwide taxation applied to all foreign operations along with an unlimited foreign tax credit. In contrast, a system that maximizes national welfare--a system possessing national neutrality--would impose a higher tax burden on foreign investment, thus permitting an overall disincentive for foreign investment. Such a system would impose worldwide taxation but would permit only a deduction, and not a credit, for foreign taxes. A tax system based on territorial taxation would exempt overseas business investment from U.S. tax. In recent years, several proponents of territorial taxation have argued that changes in the world economy have rendered traditional prescriptions for international taxation obsolete and instead prescribe territorial taxation as a means of maximizing both world and national economic welfare. For such a system to be neutral, however, capital would have to be completely immobile across locations. A case might be made that such a system is less distorting than the current hybrid system, but it is not clear that it is more likely to achieve policy goals than other reforms, including not only a movement toward worldwide taxation by ending deferral but also proposals to provide a minimum tax and restrict deductions for costs associated with deferred income or restrict deferral and foreign tax credits for tax havens. A House tax proposal, called the "Better Way" tax plan, would not only move to a territorial tax but convert the income tax into a consumption tax. In this case, equity capital would likely be attracted to the United States from foreign countries because of the elimination, in most respects, of a tax on capital income of firms in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article estimates the economic growth effects of the Better Way Tax Reform Task Force Blueprint that was released by U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on June 24, 2016. Topics discussed include the models used by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, the estimated increase in output, and the supply side effects and the crowding out effects of increased deficits.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) administers several programs to support small businesses, including loan guaranty and venture capital programs to enhance small business access to capital; contracting programs to increase small business opportunities in federal contracting; direct loan programs for businesses, homeowners, and renters to assist their recovery from natural disasters; and small business management and technical assistance training programs to assist business formation and expansion. Congressional interest in these programs has increased in recent years, primarily because assisting small business is viewed as a means to enhance economic growth. Some, including President Obama, have argued that the SBA should be provided additional resources to assist small businesses in acquiring capital necessary to start, continue, or expand operations and create jobs. Others worry about the long-term adverse economic effects of spending programs that increase the federal deficit. They advocate business tax reduction, reform of financial credit market regulation, and federal fiscal restraint as the best means to assist small business economic growth and job creation. During the 111th Congress ? P.L. 111-5, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), provided the SBA an additional $730 million, including $375 million to temporarily subsidize SBA fees and increase the 7(a) loan guaranty program's maximum loan guaranty percentage to 90%; P.L. 111-240, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, authorized $30 billion for the Small Business Lending Fund to encourage community banks to provide small business loans ($4 billion was issued); $1.5 billion for the State Small Business Credit Initiative to provide funding to participating states with small business capital access programs, numerous changes to the SBA's loan guaranty and contracting programs, and $510 million to continue the SBA's fee subsidies and 90% maximum loan guaranty percentage through December 31, 2010; and about $12 billion in tax relief for small businesses; and ? P.L. 111-322, the Continuing Appropriations and Surface Transportation Extensions Act, 2011, authorized the SBA to continue its fee subsidies and the 7(a) program's 90% maximum loan guaranty percentage through March 4, 2011, or until available funding was exhausted, which occurred on January 3, 2011. During the 112th Congress, several bills were introduced to enhance small business access to capital through the SBA, including bills to extend the SBA's temporary fee subsidies and the 90% maximum loan guaranty percentage. Congress did not adopt these legislative efforts. Instead, Congress passed legislation to enhance small business contracting opportunities, expand access to the SBA's surety bond guarantee program, amend the SBA's size standard practices, require a review and reassessment of the federal procurement small business goaling program, and expand small business mentor-protégé programs. Congress also adopted the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (P.L. 112-106) that established a regulatory structure for startups and small businesses to raise capital through securities offerings using the Internet through crowdfunding. During the 113th Congress, P.L. 113-76, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, increased the annual authorization amount for the SBA's Small Business Investment Company venture capital program to $4 billion from $3 billion. The increased authorization amount is designed to provide small businesses additional access to venture capital. During the 114th Congress, P.L. 114-38, the Veterans Entrepreneurship Act of 2015, made permanent the Obama Administration's waiver of the up-front, one-time loan guaranty fee for veteran loans under the SBAExpress loan guaranty program and increased the 7(a) loan guaranty program's FY2015 authorization limit to $23.5 billion from $18.75 billion. This report addresses a core issue facing the 114th Congress: What, if any, additional action should the federal government take to enhance small business access to capital? It discusses the role of small business in job creation and retention, then provides an assessment of the supply and demand for small business loans and recently enacted laws designed to enhance small business access to capital by increasing either the supply of small business loans or the demand for small business loans, or both. It also examines recent actions concerning the SBA's budget and concludes with a brief overview of three legislative options available to address small business access to capital issues during the 114th Congress: wait-and-see, enact additional programs, or reduce and consolidate existing programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the data of Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce related to petroleum prices in U.S. It includes information on petroleum prices during economic recession in 2009. It also discusses the impact of natural disasters, economic growth in Asia and Europe, and oil exports of Iran on the oil prices in U.S.

The article discusses the Congressional Research Service's report titled "Critical Infrastructures: Background, Policy, and Implementation." Topics covered include details relating to the Federal Critical Infrastructure Protection Policy, the establishment of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP) in July 1996, and the implementation of the Presidential Decision Directive No. 63 in the U.S.

The article discusses information on U.S. trade policies, concepts, and performance. Topics explored include the significant role of the Congress in the implementation of trade policies, the contribution of trade activities to U.S. economic growth, and brief details about U.S. economic indicators such as current account balance, national savings, and gross domestic product (GDP).

The article discusses the role of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in job creation. It states that the aim of SBA was to support small businesses and provide credit to small businesses to allow them to provide additional employment. It mentions that the SBA argued that improving the access of small businesses to credit is an important step in supporting economic recovery and job creation.