Great HBR podcast on the ways that governments can encourage entrepreneurship (http://blogs.hbr.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/7390).

The bullet point summary:

Governments can’t imitate Silicon Valley.  It was the product of a very patricular set of circumstances in a particular time period.  Silicon Valley probably couldn’t imitate itself again today.

The desire for Governments to create a similar entrepreneurial hotbed is commendable because it points to the acknowledgement of small growing companies and their role in contributing disproportionately to economic growth.

A healthy ecosystem for entrepreneurship must include:

• Public leadership
• Supportive regulation and policy
• Conducive social norms
• Capital availability
• Large customers willing to work with small suppliers

Many countries have strong elements of this ecosystem but few have all.  Among the best countries for entrepreneurship are:

• Taiwan
• Israel
• Denmark
• Chile
• Rwanda

Regarding the effectiveness of microfinance, we need to help micro-financed businesses take a more aggressive approach allowing them to grow and expand in a big way.  Large successes in entrepreneurial companies have a very important stimulating effect on the community, in the same way that Skype helped stimulate entrepreneurship in Estonia.

It can be said that the biggest mistake countries can make is looking outside of their boarders too much.  Entrepreneurship is part of the human spirit and is a form of self expression in the same way art is.  Governments need to encourage entrepreneurship from their people and stoke that fire.  By encouraging and empowering the people these governments will see the best results.

I would suggest Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk, to anyone interested in discussions of the cognitive sciences or discussions of human perception and thought.  After watching the video, make your way to ChaunceyBell.com and read his post responding to Taylor’s presentation.

In the video Taylor discusses her experience, as a brain scientist, when she witnessed the effects of a massive stroke, first hand.  She discusses the physical experience and her philosophical interpretation of the event.

In his post, Bell responds to the account and interpretation of the experience.  Bell warns us of some of the dangers in using Taylor’s particular metaphors for understanding the event, and the underlying biological assumptions those metaphors represent.

A recent article from the Business Insider argues that the US may currently have a leg up on China.

The argument goes, China holding a large portion of US debt is not necessarily bad for the US and may give the US leverage to use to pressure China into allowing its currency to float.

The leverage comes from the effect of China selling its US debt.  If China was to do so it would devalue the Dollar against other world currencies boosting US exports and helping the US to eliminate the trade deficit.

It is still worrisome that China holds such a large portion of our sovereign debt but the reciprocity of the arrangement provides some stability.

I will be interested to see the results of the US Treasury report on the Chinese Yuan and if the Treasury will call China on their currency manipulation.

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Google has announced that it will be considering closing up its operations in China (permalink).

In summary, after an attack on its corporate infrastructure that originated from China, Google is considering withdrawing from the Chinese market.  The attack was not limited to Google and also targeted many other companies from different sectors.  The attack on Google was an attempt to gain access to the accounts of persons who are advocates of human rights in China.  While the majority of the attack failed, Google reported that basic account information, such as: the name on the account; when the account was created; and email subject line information, may have been compromised for dozens of accounts.

It will be interesting to see how this move by Google unfolds.  I wonder if exiting the Chinese market is a viable option for any company in our globalized economy.  I also wonder if the Google’s request to run an uncensored search site in China will be dismissed immediately or considered by the Chinese government.