Former President Clinton is in town, and he’s attacking the job market.
The Clinton Global Initiative is intended to come up with new ideas for generating U.S. job growth. Attending the meeting is former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles, who cut loan applications in the 90s from a stack of papers an inch thick to a single page" according to Inc. Magazine.
His other claim to fame is to have reduced bank decision-making on small business loans from 10 weeks to three weeks during his time as head of the Small Business Administration.
It’s been a struggle to have the SBA’s budget break even $1 billion, (near the all-time high set by President Clinton’s 2000 budget). But there have been signs that the SBA is loosening its reins on loaning money to small businesses.
More than 700 business leaders, politicians and nonprofit association executives are expected to attend the sessions at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers.
It lasts for two days and kicks off with an opening session and panel that includes Clinton and our new Mayor Rahm Emanuel talking about the obstacles to job growth in urban and rural areas. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is on the schedule for Thursday's closing session with Clinton. This is the first conference with a U.S. focus.
The start-ups chosen to participate include "the Netflix of parenting solutions" BabbaCo and energy-monitoring service Power2Switch. Both Chicago companies were selected for startup incubator Excelerate Labs’ summer class.
