It was not long ago when in 2001 when we had 2 million lay offs. Two million Americans lost their jobs. That is not very bad considering the enormity of the employment base in this country, but it is still too high for my blood. It is a travesty when the greatest nation in the world cannot control its regulatory bureaucracy, which caused those job loses. Sure we can blame it on the guy who lives in a cave in Afghanistan and the international terrorist attacks on the problem of the job issues, but the downward trend was there long before Osama Bin Laden finally downed those buildings he had his heart set on.

Where did all these people find jobs? What will happen in the next business cycle? Well, some of these people will be starting businesses and they will need to get an SBA loan or go to a bank, buy a franchise and of course make a business plan. A couple of good sites for business plan making are;

http://www.bizavings.com

http://www.businessplanfunding.com

check them out next time you find yourself in the same boat with the other 2 million laid off workers and those who maybe still looking for work, currently stuck in under employed circles. For instance possessing a PhD but working part time retail. Unemployment is now the lowest in three decades, but due to the regulatory bureaucracy causing the next downturn in the business cycle, we are not out of the woods yet and really no kudos can be given just yet. Sure we have some tort reform and some positive signs, but Elliot Spitzer is still on the lose and even the latest polls of business owners in California are predicting a slow down in 2006 and the hiring freezes have already started.

Everyone knows that the stock market leads the economy recovery by 6-9 months, and it did in this last go around and then tested it self went up again. Today there is no clear direction although the economic numbers look good, but mind you that the EURO slipped on the dollar, which means our manufacturers may not be so rosy as we thought for 2006-2008. Our stock market is doing some bouncing around also. Remember that the stock markets are no longer really reality based and are more like a gambling casino than anything. Some day it will no longer have any resemblance of the actual reason for its creation, but for now it is a good pre-indicator of things to come and we also know that high fuel prices take their toll on the over all economy. Interest rates are still going up albeit slow and the housing bubble is getting weird too. Anyway we must pay attention, please be thinking here.