This week’s Small Businesses “In the News” included the following stories:

NFIB Missouri State Director: Jobs Stuck in Washington Red Tape
Springfield News Leader, 9/29/12, by NFIB Missouri Director Brad Jones

The U.S. economy is stalling. Week after week, month after month, economic reports reinforce this alarming reality. Here in our state, unemployment remains above 7 percent, and there are few signs that things are improving. Missouri’s small-business community is facing some of its most daunting challenges in recent years, underscored by a looming regulatory tidal wave. The rate of complex, new regulations coming out of Washington is restricting small businesses’ ability to create jobs and help the economy rebound from the financial downturn of the last few years.

Regulations need to be balanced with economic priorities
Asheville Citizen – Times, 9/26/12, Letter to the Editor by Laura McCue

As the owner of White Oak Financial Management Inc., I can state categorically for all small businesses that we are not anti-regulation. To the contrary, we believe regulations are critical to balancing our economic priorities with consumer and environmental protections. Economic recovery depends on small business success, but today, businesses face over 4,100 pending new federal regulations. Taken together, those new rules carry a price tag of over a half-trillion dollars.

Survey: Most small businesses think Obama has made economy worse
Charlotte Business Journal, 9/25/12, by Kent Hoover

More than half of small business owners and small manufacturers think the economy is in worse shape now than it was three years ago. That’s according to a survey commissioned by the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Association of Manufacturers. The survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm.