Steve Forbes, chair and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, was the keynote speaker at the “Bacon + Eggonomics” breakfast Friday in Little Rock, where he discussed what he believes Arkansas has done — and should continue to do — to be a business-friendly state.
“Most governments — I’ll be blunt — don’t know how to create conditions for growth,” Forbes said during a question and answer session. “The formula is very simple: stable currency, low tax rates and sensible regulation. Instead, they continue to go in the opposite direction. So not to sound chauvinistic, but the trend in the world to look at is, what direction do we go? The blunt truth is, if we get it right, the rest of the world will have a chance to get it right.”
The event was hosted by Economics Arkansas, a private nonprofit that trains teachers how to incorporate principles of economics and personal finance into the classroom curriculum.
Forbes was joined by Mitch Bettis, publisher and president of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, who asked if Forbes had suggestions or strategies that a small business owner should be thinking about to overcome financial hurdles.
“Obviously, each business is different, and within an area, you find very real differences in characteristics of the small businesses,” Forbes said. “But what you mentioned about small business is also the traditional environment, which is being attacked by regulation.”
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