Prescient economist authors book on mechanics of crowd funding
Cunningham is now author of a new book, The Jobs Act: Crowdfunding for Small Businesses and Startups, which he hopes will shift financial priorities towards the firms which are most likely to create jobs.
The founder of Creative Investment Research speaks during Innovation & Equity 2013: Keeping America First in Technology: Public Innovation & Supplier Diversity, the 13th annual 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology symposium on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 at B. Smith Union Station in Washington, D.C.
"On December 22, 2003 and February 6, 2006, we warned the SEC that statistical models created by my firm using the Fully Adjusted Return (TM) Methodology signaled the possibility of system-wide economic and market failure," recalls Cunningham.
In The Jobs Act, Cunningham suggests equally important benefits from the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act, signed by President Barack Obama. The Howard University and University of Chicago trained economist delivers the nuts and bolts of how to take advantage of the JOBS Act to access new sources of capital for a small business or startup.
Since founding Creative Investment Research in 1989, Cunningham has been a pioneer in socially-responsible investment research. Another law which impacts small businesses is the Dodd-Frank Act. A provision sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters creates Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion in every federal regulatory agency. Also, the act requires banks to report their business lending statistics by race.
Cunningham presents a weekly webinar on Dodd-Frank through his website creativeinvest.com.
During Innovation & Equity 2013, Cunningham participates in the First in Venture Capital, Private Equity and Crowdfunding Salon at 4 p.m.
Small business lending to African-American firms fell 75 percent since the 2008 meltdown, and those firms only receive 0.5 percent of venture capital. The salon will discuss ways to overcome those barriers in access to capital, particularly for innovative companies.
