It is my pleasure to be here today at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Small Business Development Conference. If I even attempted such a claim you would all rightly laugh at me.
Small business is vital to the U.S. economy in ways that go far beyond mere quantitative measures.
The small business sector is the market's laboratory of new products and new ideas. Ill. Twenty years ago, Microsoft had a similarly humble origin. We do not know, nor can we ever tell which of the small businesses being formed today will become multi-billion dollar operations in the 21st century. But, we do know that some will and they will be part of the driving force which remakes the American economy. But, even those businesses which do not become industrial behemoths still have a vital role to play.