Regional Business News

The paper starts by noting that student debt has grown dramatically over the last decade — some 43 percent of Americans under the age of 25 had student debt in 2012, with the average debt burden now $20,326. By contrast, back in 2003, just 25 percent of younger Americans had debt, and the average burden was $10,649.

With continued uncertainty due to sequestration and the potential for further federal budget cuts, we recognize the financial challenges involved in such an endeavor, but believe that engaging the forest products industry as a partner can help alleviate some of these challenges.

Ignition Partner
s
, an early
–
stage
venture
–
capital firm, announced it has
closed
its fifth fund. The $150 million vehicle will
target
early
–
stage invest
ments in enterprise
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technology companies located
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oughout
the U.S., with a strong
emphasis on the West Coast.

The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that the country will be 90,000 primary care doctors short by the end of the decade, leading many to ask what the point of giving people health insurance is if they don’t have adequate places to go to use it.

Why the optimism toward a manufacturing comeback? Here are five reasons:

"It is critical to the economic health of every city and state to create an entrepreneur-friendly environment," Dane Stangler, director of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, wrote in the report. "Policymakers put themselves in the best position to encourage sustainable growth and long-term prosperity by listening to the voices of small business owners themselves."

Study suggests the quality of many of the facilities in a federal program designed to keep them open has deteriorated in the past decade.

The favorable mix of both cash and credit has provided fuel to drive up land values across the Midwest, stoking fears of a bubble ready to burst.

Reshoring Initiative is a national movement launched in 2010 to encourage more manufacturers to bring jobs back to the United States. According to its mission statement, the group aims to help companies "more accurately assess their total cost of offshoring, and shift collective thinking from ‘offshoring is cheaper’ to ‘local reduces the total cost of ownership.’"

Yet there is also another America, where things work. One hint comes from what those bosses like to call the real economy.