The president met with a hand picked selection of small banks…(those from states where he really needs the help) and they told him — “what do you mean loan more? That’s not the problem.”

The Senate halts plan to tax plastic surgery procedures and will go after the tanning salon industries. Those small business owners ought to be really pissed.

President Obama is attacking the banks, encouraging them to “lend more.” He says (to banks) “you are making too much money and “you guys caused the problems.”

Petula Dvorak has a column in the Washington Post today. She argues that “paid sick leave would be good medicine for the workforce.” What she is referring to is “mandatory paid sick leave.”

What happens in America if you become wildly successful? What happens if a product or service of yours becomes so good that so many people want itthat becomes the dominant player in the market place?

The Washington Post recently profiled several young and very wealthy people who felt “guilty” about their wealth. These folks, members of the resource generation, had achieved their wealth not by work or earnings or trade but by sheer luck-inheritance. The article focused on their “emotional difficulties” as the “grappled” with their wealth.

The Montgomery County, Maryland Council has voted to require restaurants to post calorie counts of foods they sell. Once again, we have government passing “feel-good legislation” which supposedly is going to save people from themselves while at the same time is increasing the cost of doing business for the business owner. Increased costs for the business — increased costs for consumers.

In this morning’s Washington Post Michelle Singletary is jumping for joy over new rules that regulate bank overdraft fees for transactions that take place at automated teller machines or with debit cards. Her words: “it took a deep recession that finally the need to protect consumers is outweighing the almighty concern for business to make a buck.”

He is preparing emergency legislation that would guarantee paid sick days for anyone diagnosed with the H1N1 virus. Guarantee, not by the government but by the business owner who is risking time and capital to run a business.

The United States Supreme Court heard argument in a case this week and free enterprise and capitalism are at stake. The case is about a lawsuit that mutual fund investors filed against the funds advisors, claiming that the fees charged by the advisors were “too high.” They rely on a 1970 amendment to the Federal [...]