There's a bill pending in Congress to give angels who invest in certain companies a 25 percent tax credit.  Whether it would benefit anyone other than angel investors is unclear.

The legislation, the Innovation Technologies Investment Act, would give angels the tax credit for investments in startups receiving Small Business Innovation (SBIR) grants. The federal SBIR program provides funding to small businesses engaged in innovative research. It's meant to encourage more investment in these startups, which tend to have a lot of promise and, possibly, the potential to create jobs.

I've avoided rehearsing the on-going debate over the bleak macroeconomic picture, because it quickly descends into endless political back and forth along with the usual name-calling, as my colleague Steve Taub and I have been discussing internally today.  But it's time to make an exception:

Is the private sector not hiring because it fears more aggressive action from the public sector, and so the public sector (read Obama administration) should leave the economy to itself, as those on the right claim? Or is the lack of private sector hiring a reflection of a lack of private sector hiring, and thus a vicious circle and market failure that requires the public sector (read Obama administration) to step in with a serious jobs program involving infrastructure, alternative energy and schools, as those on the left insist?

Not to speak for Steve, but my sense is he tends to agree with the first perspective, at least for the most part, and I can safely report that I agree with the second, and would recommend James Surowiecki's recent column to help make my case if I could find it. Since I can't, suffice it to say Surowiecki made the useful observation that the two sectors where hiring is picking up, banking and health care, are those where the government has taken the most aggressive regulatory action.

For small businesses, finding funding in this environment is no day at the beach. Big banks and many small ones don't want to make what they see as too-risky loans. Angel financing is tough to get. And even in good times, venture capitalists only invest in 1 percent to 2 percent of the business plans they receive.

But, amid the recent hoopla about helping small business--Lloyd Blankfein's $500 million fund/publicity stunt, Obama pledging to convene a small- business summit and so on--small -business expert Seth Godin just came up with an intriguing suggestion for a new approach to financing.