For fiscal policy, this means continued efforts to preserve at least a part of the budget surplus to contribute to national saving. For monetary policy, it means continued efforts to stabilize prices and to keep unemployment as low as possible consistent with stable prices. For the past few years, policies have been sound in this sense, and it is important to maintain this posture. Small Business and the Economy Turning now to the topic of the conference, small businesses are extremely important to the health of the United States economy. There are approximately twenty-three million small businesses in the United States, representing more than 99 percent of all firms.
Small firms provide the first job for an even higher share of the nation's workforce.
Small firms also are often at the leading edge of technological innovation, fostered by a competitive need to experiment with new ideas and product development. The vigorous small business community makes the American economy more flexible, enhancing our capacity to respond to the fast pace of change in an increasingly technological world marketplace. Most of our largest, multinational corporations depend on a vast array of reliable, agile suppliers that help make possible and help maintain America's competitive position in international markets. A healthy, growing small business sector makes our economy more nimble, better able to respond to new market trends and needs, and ultimately more productive as the results of small business experimentation and innovation weave their way throughout the wider economy. Small businesses also contribute to local community and economic life.