The Age of Independents, from indie.biz indie.biz

It's time for us to all get smarter about our economy and how it works.

Today I talk with John Lettieri, President and CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, to get a better sense of how this crisis is unfolding and what the economic realities were before the trouble started. While the economy was "strong" before the crisis. the reality is that some sectors, and some parts of the country, had barely started recovering from the Great Recession.

As John says, we have no prior analog for this crisis, so history is not a great guide. But unless we understand the crisis in context we have no hope of what we're dealing with and where we are most vulnerable.

The Economic Innovation Group
https://eig.org/

indie.biz
www.indie.biz

On today's show I talk with Katie Vlietstra Wonnenberg of the National Association for the Self-Employed (https://www.nase.org/) and Public Private Strategies (https://www.publicprivatestrategies.com/) about what the CARES Act means for small businesses and the self-employed. There's good news and bad news and some not-yet news. But there are also things that you should be doing now to take advantage of the federal relief money that's available.

indie.biz
www.indie.biz

SBA's site on the Paycheck Protection Program
https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/paycheck-protection-program

Economic Injury Disaster Loans & Emergency Economic Injury Grants online application
https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/
Find a local SBA office https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/find/?type=SBA%20District%20Office&pageNumber=1

If a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, what are we going to do with this one?

The economic damage will be significant--it's already started and it will be getting worse before it gets better. Mitigating the damage will mean taking radical steps to protect our small businesses. The failure to do that in 2008 had massive repercussions that we still don't fully understand.

This is a tough time for everyone—and particularly our independent businesses. My goal is to start and honest conversation about this essential topic at this critical time.

In the coming weeks we will bring on guests who can help make sense of the crisis and share ideas for what can be done.

References:

indie.biz
www.indie.biz

David Smick, The Great Equalizer
https://www.alibris.com/The-Great-Equalizer-How-Main-Street-Capitalism-Can-Create-an-Economy-for-Everyone-David-M-Smick/book/35310782?matches=39
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Equalizer-Capitalism-Economy-Everyone-ebook/dp/B01KT2DTNI/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3794YI3VLSL5N&keywords=the+great+equalizer&qid=1585330427&sprefix=great+equalizer%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-3

Edmund Phelps, Mass Flourishing
https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?keyword=mass+flourishing&mtype=B&hs.x=0&hs.y=0

https://www.amazon.com/Mass-Flourishing-Grassroots-Innovation-Challenge/dp/0691165793/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1585330459&sr=8-2

Peter Drucker, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
https://www.alibris.com/Innovation-and-Entrepreneurship-Peter-F-Drucker/book/3236858?matches=83

https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Entrepreneurship-Peter-F-Drucker-ebook/dp/B000FC12BO/ref=sr_1_3?crid=87UTNFFZRZY3&keywords=innovation+and+entrepreneurship+by+peter+drucker&qid=1585330492&sprefix=innovation+and+en%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-3