Martin Baily--Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institutions, and former Council of Economic Advisers Chair--says the government needs to do everything it can to get growth moving.  And he is specifically interested in targeting small businesses as the engines of that growth--largely through hiring.  That may mean "getting out of the way" of business at times.  But it also means directing funds to small businesses through the Small Business Administration.  Baily and Brookings colleagues Karen Dynan and Douglas J. Elliott, have authored a policy brief on how to help small businesses lead the way toward economic recovery, and they made the following recommendations to the Obama Administration:

• Improve access to public and private capital.
• Reexamine corporate tax policy with an eye toward whether provisions of our tax code are discouraging small business development.
• Promote education to help businesses struggling with shortages of workers with particular skills, and promote research to spur innovation.
• Rethink immigration policy, as current policy may be contributing to shortages of key workers and deterring entrepreneurs who wish to start promising businesses in our country.
• Explore ways to foster “innovation-friendly” environments, such as regional cluster initiatives.
• Strengthen government counseling programs.

This week Baily spoke about how the government should work to help small businesses in this @Brookings interview:

Read The Future of Small Business Entrepreneurship: Jobs Generator for the U.S. Economy here.