Inc.com reports that, according to the National Small Business Association, “[t]he nation’s small-business owners are finding it increasingly difficult to access capital. Out of 500 small and midsize companies surveyed nationwide, 33 percent said it was becoming more difficult to obtain financing, compared to just 24 percent in a similar poll seven years ago.”
On a happier note, eWeek.com writes that “the high-tech industry added 146,600 jobs, or 3 percent of its work force, between 2005 and 2006, bringing total employment to 5.8 million in the United States.”
According to BBC News, “[t]he number of new pieces of malicious software has doubled in the last year with the web being used increasingly to distribute the code.”
In a different article, BBC News writes that “China President Hu Jintao” has been reported as saying at a meeting of the Communist Party Politburo that “‘[u]nhealthy’ content should be purged from the net and replaced with Communist doctrine.”
Finally, BusinessWeek online reports that “[t]he U.S. is falling behind in per-capita high-speed Internet subscriptions, fueling worries that American competitiveness will suffer.”