No Entrepreneurs, No Recovery

WHILE AWAY IN THE STATES, I updated my phone's calendar with a scheduled item for the first Thursday of the month--it's OpenCoffee in Limerick and it's an event that puts me in direct chat with more entrepreneurs than any other event in Ireland. The next few events will be difficult to attend because of end-of-semester requirements but I've annotated them nonetheless. When we take students, like those at the left, we point out the message of Carl Schramm, present of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Schramm watches the number of new businesses being formed--typically 700,000 a year in the States. According to the New York Times business section, it's doubtful that the American number will reach half that amount in 2009. Almost all new U.S. jobs created come from firms less than five years old. The same data hold true in Ireland. No entrepreneurs, no recovery.

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