Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    by Xinhua writers Hu Guangyao, Tan Shusen

    CHICAGO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. economy is expected to start recovering early next year, said Jerry R. Mitchel, president of Midwest Entrepreneur Forum.

    In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Mitchel predicted that the U.S. economy may be going to recover in the first quarter of the year 2010 and the reason for that is more and more people in the country have started to create their own jobs.

    He said the reason for his prediction is that "when something happens like this (economic recession) people start businesses, because they do not have enough money in their pocket and banks, they have to work and build new companies."

    "In the face of every downturn that America has, new businesses are formed to become big companies," he said.

    Talking about U.S. government's economic stimulus plan, he said, "I do not like stimulus plan, because what they (the government) are doing is that they are doing a stimulus plan, at the same time they raise taxes and put new programs in. That has not been financially responsible as a government."

    "They give money to the people of the companies that failed and they keep the same people there. That's very bad," he added.

    Mitchel is a successful businessman in U.S. Midwest. In November 1997, he and three others were described by Fortune Magazine as serial entrepreneurs because of their accomplishments in starting multiple successful companies.

    Asked if the small businesses in the United States are seriously affected by the current economic turndown, he said, "the small businesses are hurt because the government raises taxes on them. As in America, 95 percent of jobs are with small companies."

    "Everybody seemed to look to big companies, but big companies can not get aside with their problems. Everyday big companies lay people off. Big companies are doing business in countries where labor costs are low and services are cheaper. But small businesses do not do that, they start new technology and start solving problems of America," said Mitchel who is the CEO of Asian Business Company, an importer and exporter of products from Asia.

    On the current situation in the U.S. auto industry, which has seen domestic giants such as General Motors and Chrysler come to the verge of bankruptcy, Mitchel said "it is a two-edge sword for General Motors to go to bankruptcy."

    "The Democratic party has always been for the workers, but if GM falls into bankruptcy, it has only to start over again with no workers union," he said.

    "Twenty percent of people of America are related with automobile industry, making parts, tires, batteries across America. So if you kill that, 20 percent of people will have no jobs. So if GM goes bankrupt, it will affect middle-class Americans. They will not have jobs and they will not buy," he added.