The New Federalism for Progressives. What is to come of The Federalist Society?
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@launchasp
The New Federalism for Progressives. What is to come of The Federalist Society?
Crowdfunding Will Transform Finance Forever
This article originally appeared appeared May 17, 2013 in Business Horizon Quarterly, with the headline Crowdfunding: The Everyman Investor, as well as on Forum for Innovation. It has been republished here with permission from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
By Benjamin Miller
Crowdfunding Will Transform Finance Forever
While most politicians and pundits see last April’s Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act as only an incremental deregulation of small-scale fundraising, it actually has the potential to transform the entire financial system. Called crowdfunding, the JOBS Act, once promulgated, will allow a company to solicit publicly for funds from individuals in return for equity or debt, which fundamentally changes the business norms of private markets. This will open up the finance industry to the ruthless, dis-intermediating power of the Internet.
Under current securities regulations, investment crowdfunding is essentially against the law. If you wish to raise money for your company, you cannot declare it publicly. In legal terms, such a public declaration would be a “general solicitation.” This is forbidden unless the company first files an offering with securities regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is an extensive, multi-month endeavor.
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Great summary of the potential for crowdfunding:
SpaceX’s prototype rocket Grasshopper hovers at 820 feet in highest flight yet
Last night SpaceX released a video of the latest successful test flight of its Grasshopper prototype rocket, a spacecraft designed to launch and land vertically.
Even more reason to ditch the office in favor of the home office, the mobile office or a co-working space?
In the wake of the high-profile decision of Yahoo! CEO Marisa Mayer to "recall" all Yahoo! employees from telecommuting, this article reminds us of the never-quite-realized promises of remote work technology.
Still, change marches on...and entrepreneurs are finding ever-more creative ways to unchain themselves from offices and overhead. Or are they actually stepping away from true productivity and results?
The debate will rage on.
But we all should have choices to work with our employers and clients to choose those options that work best for our work product...and to decide when, and if, work/life balance considerations must also be taken into consideration. And we must have polices that support those decisions no matter the ultimate choice.
The Durbin bill was expected to exempt from sales tax collection any merchant with $1 million in annual sales or less. That would be an increase from a prior cap of $500,000. This change would bring the Senate bill in line with previous versions in the House of Representatives.
Online sales taxes back on Senate's docket | Reuters
LAUNCH^asp aims to assist the "angels" in Ohio through better policy and increased engagement with policy makers.
A Punch to the Gut for Ohio's Entrepreneurs? Ohio Tax Reform Bill (HB 59) Analyzed by Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP
Entrepreneurs providing services in Ohio need to take the time to review the impact that Governor Kasich's proposed budget would have on their sales, purchases and business planning.
As noted by the Vorys' analysis linked here, "This tax expansion will hit Ohio businesses most directly and hardest although individual consumers will bear the brunt of these new taxes in the form of higher prices for the things they typically buy and use."
Here is a summary of the service tax implications of HB 59 from the analysis:
The bill abandons the approach of defining and listing specific services that may be taxed. Instead, it expands the definition of sale to include all services. The term "services" is defined as "any act performed for another for a fee, retainer, commission or other consideration." There are several notable exclusions from this expansive definition including: medical and healthcare services; educational services; adult and child day care services; funeral services; and services of an employee rendered to his/her employer.
This shift makes virtually any act performed (outside an employer/employee relationship) by any person, business, enterprise, joint venture, partnership, etc... for another in exchange for something of value a service that is subject to sales or use tax. Yes, this means ALL non-excluded services. If you can think of or describe an act rendered for a fee that is not expressly excluded, it's a taxable service under the bill. Many services never before taxed would be under the proposed tax reform such as accounting, engineering, legal, banking, business consulting, advertising (space and time), transportation, public utility, software engineering, and management services.
Vorys also does an excellent job summarizing the real-word impact of the imposition of these new service taxes:
They will have drastic tax effects on each business in Ohio in the form of new taxes to pay and/or collect. Each business should review its accounts receivable base to make very certain that it understands the potential sales tax collection responsibilities that may be imposed. Point of sale/point of purchase software may need updated or replaced. Contracts may need to be reviewed and customer budgets considered. Invoicing systems may need replaced. This is true for the sale and purchase side of your business. You will need to review invoices and accounts payable to make sure the correct amount of sales tax is being collected by the vendor or use tax is being remitted. For direct pay permit holders or users of use tax software systems, new compliance protocols should be considered.
This new law is of significant import to the Ohio entrepreneurial community - both from the newly-imposed burden of tax collection for your services, as well as from the perspective of the potential need to re-work and update products sold to clients.
LAUNCH^asp will be following the progress of this legislation.
Your input is welcomed.
Thoughtful Venture Beat article exploring the difference between "takers" and "makers."
Certainly is an interesting argument that recent graduates and entrepreneurs should follow their instinct to see "jobs with social impact."
Could be a path that leads to greater quality of life. It is a choice that should be considered.
Could this line of thinking could also have a positive long-term impact on the economy as entrepreneurial focus shift from "meteoric wealth creation" and "praying and looking for quick wins" to solutions that have "real-world impact...and fundamentally new technologies?"
Recommended Reading and Policy Inspiration: March 2013 Wired Magazine, The Disruptor - Transform Capitalism to Create Jobs
Clay Christenson, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, discusses the impact of what he calls the "Doctrine of New Finance" and its role in recovery of the American economy -- where the economy is emerging from recession, but is not creating jobs for the average person:
We’ve encouraged managers to measure profitability based on a return on net assets, or return on capital employed. That encourages companies to liberate their capital, so they invest in efficiency innovations, which means they can make more money with fewer resources. But what the economy ultimately needs are empowering innovations—like the Model T, the transistor radio. Empowering innovations require long-term investments, which tie up capital for years and years. So companies are using capital to create more capital, and consequently the world is awash in capital but the innovations we need to advance aren’t there.
Christenson argues that we can address this reality through tax policy that "transform what I call migratory capital into productive capital." His is not a call for government to try to predict what constitutes an "empowering innovation" (governments are rarely good at predicting winners in the market), but rather to tie the tax rate to the length of time capital is deployed - "[t]he longer the capital is invested, the lower the rate it's taxed at."
With rates approaching zero over the course of an investment, companies will be incentivized to invest in those empowering innovations that require long-term capital investments. It helps to break the fiscal quarter focus in American commerce that produces incremental 10% improvements of products and services, but denies capital to innovation that disrupts and transforms the economy, and creates new industries and employment.
Its an idea worthy of consideration.
I just started to dive into Al Gore's new book, The Future.
I have a natural affinity for VP Gore as I used to work for his campaign. But regardless of my personal regard for him, his book has reinforced many aspects of my my evolving views and ideas about what I call the "disruptive economy."
Below is a brief excerpt that I believe encapsulates my views, and also summarizes why I have begun to blog and advocate about such issues here at LAUNCH^asp:
"[N]ational policies, regional strategies, and long accepted economic theories are now irrelevant to the new realities of our new hyper-connected, tightly integrated, highly interactive, and technologically revolutionized economy."
The need to think and act LONG is greater than ever before.
If we don't, as noted by VP Gore, we will see "much greater inequalities of incomes and net worth...[t]hose who will lose their jobs have less income, while those who benefit from the increasing relative value of technological capital have increased income."
Thinking LONG is necessary - not just to experience the benefits of the disruptive economy, but also to preserve many of the treasured values of the American middle-class dream.
Interesting, if risky, way to finance a venture.
However, it does represent a common sense, easily implemented policy that is supportive of entrepreneurs and startups.
We need more of these...at the federal and state level.
"Our ambitions are a glass ceiling to what we can accomplish..."
Never underestimate the power of thinking (and acting) BIG.
It's the script to achieving true impact & disruption.
Like the collaborative workspace concept, this @airbnb for office space idea represents a further expansion of options for startups and entrepreneurs...without the regulatory barriers.
Costs of entry continue to lower.