MAINSTREETVOICES--U.S. small business leaders on today's economy and the bailout

The View From Mainstreet: Jill Brennon

Sarwar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:31:17 +0000

Concluding Interview:

This conversation with Jill Brennon, Senior Vice President for International Sales-FedEx concludes the Foreign Policy Association’s ”Wall Street to Main Street” series. Over the last six months, arguably the roughest months in recent business history, we have been pleased to illuminate the views of some of America’s leading small business CEOs. Small businesses create most of the private sector jobs in America, and it is business leaders like the ones we have featured who will drive economic recovery.

This week, Sarwar Kashmeri, host of Global Currents discusses the importance of small businesses to the world’s economies with Jill Brennon, Senior Vice President for International Sales at FedEx. Ms. Brennan works with her team of 2800 professionals to craft tailored solutions to help small businesses in 220 countries access world markets.

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Halting Recovery Divides America in Two

Sarwar — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:17:36 +0000

From: Wall Street Journal, Saturday, Aug 29, 2009

The U.S. recovery is a tale of two economies.

At one extreme of Corporate America is a cadre of companies and banks, mostly big, united by an enviable access to credit. At the other end are firms, chiefly small, with slumping sales that can’t borrow or are facing stiff terms to do so.

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The Democrats’ unfit health plan

Sarwar — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:27:43 +0000

The Financial Times, July 17, 2009

The aim of universal health insurance is admirable. The present system is horribly unfair, and it imposes a heavy economic burden. But the Democrats’ bill may actually do more harm than good.

Read the full editorial

The View From Main Street: April Cornell

Sarwar — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:32:25 +0000

Thursday, July 9 2:21 pm EST

This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with April Cornell, owner and CEO of April Cornell Enterprises of Burlington, VT. An artist at heart, she has created a global business that continues to hold steady in these troubled times. Ms. Cornell believes it will take a global effort to reverse this economic cycle and is against protectionist legislation, especially against developing countries. Instead, she wants small businesses to think global, to weather economic cycles more effectively.

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View from Main Street: Pamela Kan

Sarwar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:56:15 +0000

Thursday, June 11, 2009

This week, Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Pamela Kan, President of Bishop Wisecarver Corporation, the sixty year old, Pittsburg, California based manufacturing company specializing in tailored linear-motion products and tailored solutions. Kan questions how much of the negativity in the marketplace is caused by the media, “Our orders are still coming in, but the customers are very worried, and don’t want us to ship,” she says. Bishop Wisecarver is not spinning its wheels during the slack time, it is busy designing the next generation of its products.

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Viewpoints: To Restart the Economy Conference in Small Business

Sarwar — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:05:59 +0000

By: Sarwar A. Kashmeri

May 7th, 2009

It is not just the average American who is spitting venom at the large corporations seeking handouts and bailouts from Washington. Small business CEOs are even more furious. “There is a reason why bankruptcy is part of doing business in America, we seem to have forgotten that,” one of them told me.

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View from Main Street: Steve Voigt

Sarwar — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:07:51 +0000

Thursday, April 30 12:18 pm EST

This week, Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with the CEO of King Arthur Flour, Steve Voigt. King Arthur Flour, founded in 1790 in Boston, now located in Vermont. Voigt discusses his company’s ability to succeed in tough economic times, noting that the “carb scare” initiated by the Atkins diet helped King Arthur learn how to weather new challenges. Voigt says a new social contract needs to be established between businesses and consumers, and the playing field leveled in a number of ways to help small businesses. “Our employees have a stake in what we do,” said Voigt, “and it shows in every bag of flour.”

Lending Down Among TARP Banks

Sarwar — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:48:55 +0000

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 15, 2009

By MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN and DAVID ENRICH

WASHINGTON—The largest bank recipients of U.S. government aid are offering less credit to businesses and consumers, the Treasury Department said Wednesday, reflecting and exacerbating the current tenuous economic environment.

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The Goldman Two-Step

Sarwar — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:47:17 +0000

Freedom from TARP, but not exactly swearing off all federal help.

The Wall Street Journal. Op-ed. April 15, 2009

So Goldman Sachs now wants to repay its $10 billion in taxpayer capital, with its CFO even saying the Wall Street giant has a “duty” to do so now that it is once again turning a nice profit. Congratulations to Goldman on its desire to escape federal bondage. The question taxpayers might still ask, however, is whether Goldie is also willing to forswear a bailout when it next gets into trouble. Is it still “too big to fail”?

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Mainstreet Voices on Vermont Public Radio

Sarwar — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:28:10 +0000

Jane Lindholm, host of Vermont Public Radio’s Vermont Edition speaks to Sarwar Kashmeri.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 1240 PM. VPR interviewed Sarwar on the Foreign Policy Association’s “Wall Street to Main Street” series of interviews with small business CEOs: www.mainstreetvoices.wordpress.com

This program is available on-line as a podcast in VPR’s archives: http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/84587/