Many self-employed Americans and small business owners are seeing credit card limits lowered as banks try to lower their risk levels. The lower limits can also hurt credit scores….and are limiting the access to capital in small firms. The federal government has launched a program to help free up credit for more Americans at lower rates. By providing up to $200 billion in financing to investors to buy up debt, the Federal Reserve hopes to break the logjam in credit and spark economic growth, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress. The Fed hopes to free up $1 trillion in lending for companies and consumers at a moment when the economy has been shrinking: American payrolls have shrunk by 3.6 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007. With renewed lending, the government hopes for consumer spending to bounce back and businesses to expand.

Lifelines from the IRS

Many people impacted by the financial downturn may qualify for lifelines from the Internal Revenue Service. Congress has enacted several provisions that spare taxpayers from having canceled debts being treated as taxable income. But to qualify, taxpayers must be proactive and file special forms to qualify for the exceptions. Nina Olson is the National Taxpayer Advocate and discusses some of the lifelines now available to taxpayers in an interview. In her annual report to Congress, Olson said many taxpayers and even tax preparers; are not familiar with the proper exception forms to reduce the tax burden.

Federal Contracting Proposals

The President has new proposals to overhaul the federal contracting process. No-bid and cost plus contracts are being targeted to allow more competition for government paid work. These changes are expected to open the door for more small and mid-sized businesses, and help women business owners reach a five percent federal contracting goal set by Congress in 2001, that has yet to be met. Women Impacting Public Policy, or WIPP, and American Express Open are teaming up on a national education program to give women business owners the information they need to do business with the government: While ‘Give Me 5’ is geared towards women business owners, the program makes many resources available to all small business owners.  To learn more about the “Give Me Five” program and access some of the training materials, look for the WIPP logo on SBTV.com’s organization page

Smart Grid

The Obama administration is exploring ways to implement a smart grid to improve the nation’s energy efficiency while reducing the risk of blackouts or even attacks.   A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy and reduce costs. Because demand for power is growing faster than capacity, the smart grid is considered essential to business growth and could give users more control. It is estimated that power outages and disturbances cost the economy from $25 to $180 billion annually.

Social Mastermind 2009

A new effort to identify new ideas and drive social media innovation is underway today. Social Mastermind 2009 is a contest looking for new social application concepts to help businesses with connect with their audience and drive revenue. The winning idea could be worth one hundred thousand dollars! You have until April 15^th to submit your social media innovation at http://www.jellybarn.com/mastermind.

Transformers May Boost Business for Chevy

Some big stars made their debut at the Chicago Auto show before taking to movie screens in June. The larger than life robots from the upcoming film, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” were on display with new 2010 Chevy production models on the show floor and some onlookers believe the super powered robots could give Chevy a boost!