NFIB: The National Federation of Independent Business recently released their monthly Small Business Economic Trends report for May and the results are encouraging. From the survey summary:

Small business owner optimism continues to improve. The National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism rose 2.1 points in May to 88.9[1]. Added to April’s gain of 5.8 points, the Index has clearly bottomed (the March reading of 81.0 was less than a point away from the all-time low reading of 80.1 reached in the second quarter of 1980) and is signaling an end to the recession.  Nine of the 10 Index components were unchanged or up in May." Job creation, however, remains low and credit is still hard to come by but that's not keeping small businesses from having a positive outlook for future prospects and they're putting their money where their mouths are: "Plans to make capital expenditures over the next few months rose a point to 20 percent, up for the second month in a row. A net 12 percent expect business to conditions to improve over the next six months, up 10 points from April—a significant improvement in expectations." Read the whole piece here for the rest of the survey results.

NDN: Located within a stone's throw of the White House, the New Democratic Network is in the perfect position to take the Obama administration's pulse on clean tech innovation. In his topical piece, Clean Technology Innovation: Reaping the Rewards,Michael Moynihan critiques a BusinessWeek.com article that focuses on the supposed collapse of US innovation. Moynihan summarizes Michael Mandel's pessimistic views, "According to Mandel, many of our current woes stem from a failure to innovate over the last decade since the glory years of the late 1990s. While most Americans still take pride in our innovation, Mandel provides some sobering statistics: the wages of young college graduates -- precisely the group that should be succeeding in the information economy -- declined 24% between 1998 and 2007. The U.S. trade balance in high tech goods flipped from a $30 billion surplus in 1998 to a $53 billion deficit in 2007. Mortality statistics actually worsened for those 45 to 54, belying talk of medical breakthroughs." So why should we not go gently into that good night, you ask? Moynihan explains the way forward: "Now one of the hottest areas in Silicon Valley and an area that the Obama Administration believes is key to powering prosperity, clean technology has -- as John Doerr has said -- more potential for wealth creation than information technology. Yet despite numerous technology breakthroughs, the clean energy and technology space has yet to generate the type of home runs on a company level or growth on an economy-wide level needed to reinvigorate the American economy and get wages moving upwards again." Green, clean innovative businesses and products could very well be the saving grace for a country in dire straits but the real question is if the combination of profits and cleantech is a real possibility or merely a fantastic figment of the imagination.

BusinessWeek.com: Also be sure to check out the original referenced piece by Michael Mandel, The Failed Promise of Innovation in the U.S., with the equally depressing subtitle, "During the past decade, innovation has stumbled. And that may help explain America's economic woes." Here is just one key indicator of bad times for American would-be innovators: "A more indirect indication of the lack of innovation lies in the wages of college-educated workers. These are the people we would expect to prosper in growing, innovative industries that need smart, creative employees. But the numbers tell a different story. From 1998 to 2007, earnings for a U.S. worker with a bachelor's degree rose only 0.4%, adjusted for inflation. And young college graduates—who should be able to take advantage of opportunities in hot new industries—were hit by a 2.8% real decline in wages."

Huliq News: Have you heard about the new program providing interest-free loans from the Small Business Association for "established, viable, for-profit small businesses that need short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing qualifying debt." Here's an article with more information on the much-needed opportunity, No Interest, Fee-Free Small Business Loans From SBA, and for your further information gratification, check out the SBA's topical news releaseon the subject. With up to $35K available, this boost should help normally profitable small businesses continue to operate while the ailing economy gets back up to speed.

Reuters.com: Polish up your elevator pitch and get your Google groove on, entrepreneurs! Eric Schmidt & Co. are seriously shopping around for small tech ventures to pad out the search engine giant's portfolio. Here's the takeaway portion of the piece:

Schmidt said Google plans to focus on the cloud, mobile, and open source distribution of software in the next year.

"We have been (looking to acquire)," Schmidt said. "We have been wandering around looking at all of the different companies. With the big ones we haven't come across anything we've particularly liked. We are definitely talking to a number of smaller companies but we've done that routinely."

"We primarily look for technology. It's a typical build versus buy. How long does it take us to build it with our engineers, versus there are already engineers in this other company that have built this thing."

Strike while the iron is hot, people! This could be an excellent time to take advantage of some good old-fashioned Google largess in a general market of lowered expectations and commensurate decline in M&A activity. Read UPDATE 1-Google CEO says looking to buy smaller firms for the rest of this exciting story.

Bonus piece of the day: The Patent Prospector highlights an example of False Marking, a tale of coffee lid mislabeling that could lead to BILLIONS of dollars in damages.