The great start-up slowdown

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: The great start-up slowdown - Some economists see a link between the scarcity of start-ups and the rise in influence-peddling

PHOENIX – Usually on Fridays, Heather Jackson drives to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Plant, where she's a physicist, and she works a 10-hour shift. One particular Friday she asked for the day off. The time had come to do something about her shoes.

All day she read market research and wrote her pitch. She pulled on size-10.5 brown boots with squared, scuffed toes. She drove across town to a cinder-block office with bare concrete floors, where 50 people with hopes of starting their own companies had gathered for the weekend. She found a white plastic chair, watched several men speak for a minute each and then walked to the front of the room. Her hands shook.