The following is excerpted from Michael’s letter of support for the Maryland B Corp legislation (HB-1009): First, it rewards companies that affirmatively serve the public interest in the state. The proposed legislation effectively creates and strengthens a brand for good corporate behavior.  The B-Corporation label recognizes companies that are committed to undertaking their business with [...]

The Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980 requires the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to host an annual forum that focuses on the capital formation concerns of small business.  Called the “SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation,” this gathering has assembled every year since 1982.  The purpose of the forum is to [...]

Michael Shuman, author of Small-Mart Revolution, makes the following proposals in a recent article in Community Development Investment Review, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: One easy reform would be for the SEC to exempt from its usual expensive disclosure requirements any low-risk public ownership of locally owned microbusinesses. By low-risk, [...]

For A Green America‘s web site contains the complete text of proposed legislation that would allow the raising of “funds from the general public for a local investment pool (hereinafter “Community Fund”) . . . to invest in, and support local green businesses . . . through an unrestricted local public offering, without having to [...]

On October 29, the House passed H.R. 3854 which would specifically allow cooperatives to receive Small Business Administration loans raise caps on SBA loans create the Small Business Early Stage Investment (SBESI) program, which would provide matching grant funding for venture capital investments in early-stage small businesses in targeted industries including agricultural technology, energy technology, [...]