This article summarizes and analyzes the views of select leaders in business, labor, banking, the government, and academia with regard to the constraints, obstacles, and recommendations to achieve economic growth in Massachusetts. The role of the state government in addressing these issues receives special attention. Access to capital and technical assistance had been regarded by many as the key constraint, particularly during the recession of the early 1990s. The author analyzes inconvenient government systems, bottlenecks, and bureaucracy as throttling the flow of capital to small-business entrepreneurs. The analysis concludes, however, that unless the state cum federal government finds ways to improve the macroeconomic environment, the incentives to invest, expand, and venture will not prove adequate in comparison with the risks. Among other questions, the article asks, In the absence of dynamic and pervasive state policies and programs to improve the state and regional macroeconomy, can the private sector alone stop the investment drain and bring back full employment to Massachusetts and New England
