Sticking in my oar

by Jerry Bowyer
Posted Oct 14, 2005

Bill Clinton, once called America's "first black President," did not have nearly as much positive impact on entrepreneurship among African-Americans as President Bush has had thanks to Bush's supply-side tax policies.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation recently released a study of entrepreneurship in America. As the chart below shows, the rate of black entrepreneurship—defined as the percent of adults age 20 to 64 who start a new business as their main job—increased 0.02 percentage points during the last five years of the Clinton Administration, which is as far back as the data go. Since then, the rate has increased to 0.04 points. During the first four years of Bush's term, in other words, the increase in the percentage of African-Americans' starting new businesses each year is double the increase Clinton saw in his last five years in office.

The rate of Latino entrepreneurship actually decreased 0.02 percentage points during the last five years of the Clinton Administration. Since Bush took office, however, it has increased 0.12 points. In fact, the Latino business start-up rate is considerably higher than the non-Latino white rate.

Entrepreneurship has ripple effects in the communities where it occurs, creating new jobs. The recent surge in African-American entrepreneurship is probably the single most important economic indicator of African-American economic progress.

(Click chart for larger version.)

Mr. Bowyer is author of The Bush Boom and an economic adviser to Blue Vase Capital Management. He can be reached through www.BowyerMedia.com.