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DRAFT… DRAFT… DARFT… Fifth Annual Kauffman Foundation Economics Webloggers Forum 2013 Invitation only, alas: our budget and our space is limited… Is this conference about economic webloggers, about weblogging economists, or about the economics of weblogging? All three, I say… TIME LIMITS FOR SPEAKERS, DISCUSSANTS, AND PANELISTS WILL BE RUTHLESSLY ENFORCED!!

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two Kansas City firefighters were killed and two were injured when a burning building collapsed Monday night, a fire official said.

Last week, Secretary Pritzker delivered remarks on the leadership of the Commerce Department and the entire Obama Administration in promoting entrepreneurship across the United States at the 2015 State of Entrepreneurship Address, hosted by the Kauffman Foundation. Her remarks were delivered to various business leaders, policy experts, non-profits, and government officials to address the impact and importance of America’s entrepreneurs in our country’s economy.  Secretary Pritzker highlighted the Commerce Department’s role in ensuring there is an infrastructure of opportunity to support entrepreneurship domestically and internationally. As the driving force behind the Administration’s focus on entrepreneurship, the Commerce Department partners with businesses to set the conditions for innovators and new businesses to test new ideas, take risks, find financing and customers, and ultimately thrive. Many of the Department’s core responsibilities help create the essential infrastructure of opportunity for entrepreneurs – whether issuing patents that protect intellectual property, making investments in local economic development, collecting and disseminating data to inform better decision making, expanding access to broadband, or protecting a free and open internet.  Specifically, since the launch of the Department’s Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative in collaboration with the White House, Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development, 11 entrepreneurs serve in an ongoing dialogue with policy makers globally to create an environment where creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship can grow and thrive. In the coming months, PAGE will expand so more business leaders can share their experiences as CEOs and share recommendations to better support the business community both at home and abroad. The Commerce Department has also re-established the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), which brings together top academics, business and non-profit leaders to advise the Department on innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry-driven skills training to support the current and next generation of entrepreneurs.  In her remarks, Secretary Pritzker discussed the launch of the Startup Global pilot program, an initiative that will begin in the next few months and feature a series of incubators in Cincinnati, Nashville, Arlington, and Washington, D.C., where entrepreneurs can get technical assistance and information on how to export. 

QUEBEC — Fatima Houda-Pepin left the Quebec Liberal caucus Monday night, after a caucus meeting lasting about four hours, and will sit as an independent MNA. Asked if he could not convince his own 50-member caucus, how he expects to win the coming Quebec election, Liberal leader Philippe Couillard said, “It’s one of 50. “If I have the same percentage in Quebec, I will be rather happy.”

I’m heading off to Kansas City for a couple of days for a Kauffman Foundation conference for economic policy bloggers. As usual, posting will continue. I went to a version of this event two years ago, and I have to say that at the time I didn’t really get what Kauffman was all about—it’s a foundation for “entrepreneurship” which just kind of sounded like BS to me.

Almost three years ago we first highlighted the real math behind the surging entitlement class that America has become. So why does a large portion of the population choose not to work when there are many jobs available? The answer is simple.

The upswing in Mexican manufacturing is building a strong case for either of Canada’s largest railways to consider purchasing Kansas City Southern in order to gain greater access to the emerging market, one analyst says. Kansas City Southern [KCS] has long been thought to be attractive to either Canadian National Railway or its smaller rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., either as a potential acquisition or through deeper partnership.