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The U.S. economic crisis spurred more Americans to become entrepreneurs than at any point in the last 16 years, according to the 2011 edition of the Kauffman Foundation's Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. The study found that 320 out of every 100,000 (0.32 percent) adults (individuals between the ages of 20 and 64) in the U.S. started a new business each month in 2011, a 5.9 percent decline from 2010 (0.34 percent), but an increase over the pre-recession period. Many of these new entrepreneurs, however, are not creating new jobs through their startups.

The House approved the Senate amended version of the Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups, or JOBS, Act 380 to 41. Although, the House overwhelmingly approved the bill earlier this month, the House had to accept the Senate's amendments to the crowd funding provision. Crowd funding allows small business and startups to sale small amounts of stock to many individuals through the internet or other means without registering the shares for public trading with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The U.S. Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office will hold its first workshop to help design a national network of regional manufacturing innovation hubs on April 25 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. The event will be the first in a series of meetings to gather ideas from industry, academia and government participants on how to best structure the proposed National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.

Despite the attention given to emerging metropolises in the developing world, large U.S. cities will continue to power the global economy over the next 15 years, according to a new report. McKinsey and Company examined the economic performance of the 259 "large" U.S. cities, cities with populations of 150,000 or more. In 2010, these cities generated almost 85 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), making large cities more important to the U.S. economy than in Asia, Latin America or Western Europe.