Research and innovation is a wonderful thing, and often companies that spend the most money in research and development have the greatest rewards in profits later on. Many top business professors will claim that research and development money spent is like money in the bank. Those corporations that run their research and development teams around the clock even during a recession are usually the ones to emerge with the best profits in the future.

As cash-strapped consumers rethink their spending, small businesses should freshen up their products and services in order to keep their existing customers and attract new business.

Product innovation starts with ideas, which anyone can generate by asking a few simple questions.

We must demand that politicians stop bribing us for our votes with promises of benefits that some future generation will be saddled with paying for. This is the best possible time for Americans to reflect, adjust and re-energize this wonderfully dynamic country.