This week, Sarwar Kashmeri, host of Global Currents discusses the importance of small businesses to the world’s economies with Jill Brennan, Senior Vice President for International Sales at FedEx. Ms. Brennan works with her team of 2800 professionals to craft tailored solutions to help small businesses in 220 countries access world markets.

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EXTRA: Listen to Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speak about the series on Vermont Public Radio.

This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with April Cornell, owner and CEO of April Cornell Enterprises of Burlington, VT. An artist at heart, she has created a global business that continues to hold steady in these troubled times. Ms. Cornell believes it will take a global effort to reverse this economic cycle and is against protectionist legislation, especially against developing countries. Instead, she wants small businesses to think global, to weather economic cycles more effectively.

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EXTRA: Listen to Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speak about the series on Vermont Public Radio.

This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Pamela Kan, president of Bishop Wisecarver Corporation, the 60-year-old Pittsburg, California based company specializing in tailored linear motion products and solutions. Kan questions how much of the negativity in the marketplace is caused by the media.

“Our orders are still coming in,but the customers are very worried and don’t want to take delivery. Bishop Wisecarver is not spinning its wheels, its designing the next generation of its products.

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EXTRA: Listen to Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speak about the series on Vermont Public Radio.

This week, Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with the CEO of King Arthur Flour, Steve Voigt. King Arthur Flour, founded in 1790 in Boston, now located in Vermont.

Voigt discusses his company’s ability to succeed in tough economic times, noting that the “carb scare” initiated by the Atkins diet helped King Arthur learn how to weather new challenges. Voigt says a new social contract needs to be established between businesses and consumers, and the playing field leveled in a number of ways to help small businesses.

“Our employees have a stake in what we do,” said Voigt, “and it shows in every bag of flour.”

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EXTRA: Listen to Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speak about the series on Vermont Public Radio.

This week, Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri continues his in-depth conversations on the impact of the global economic downturn on American businesses. Dr. Dennis Logue is Chairman of the Ledyard Financial Group, the Steven Roth Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth’s Tuck School, a director of public, private and not-for profit organizations.

Dr. Logue discusses the rescue of so-called “too big to fail” banks, when the government should and should not intervene on Wall Street, and the merits and weaknesses of the big entities currently receiving tax payer funds. “Free markets allow for failures,” he says. “If you don’t have failures, you don’t have free markets.”

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EXTRA: Listen to Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speak about the series on Vermont Public Radio.

This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Karla Aaron, president of Hialeah Metal Spinning, Inc., a metal forming and manufacturing company based in South Florida. Aaron says her customers businesses could be impacted by recent calls for protectionist measures. “I believe the best thing we can do is open trade equally to make sure trade agreements are fair, back and forth.”

She also spoke on the biggest challenges facing her company during the economic crisis, despite gains of 20 percent in 2008. “The biggest issue is how you manage through this,” she said. Listen to the full interview below.

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EXTRA: Listen to Global Currents host Sarwar Kashmeri speak about the series on Vermont Public Radio.

This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Jim Delameter, president of Northeast Bank. Northeast Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northeast Bancorp (NASDAQ: NBN), headquartered in Lewiston, Maine. The Company has approximately $615 million in assets and 260 employees as of December 31, 2008 and derives its income from a combination of traditional banking services and non-traditional financial products and services including insurance and investments; operating eleven traditional bank branches, fourteen insurance offices and three investment centers that serve seven counties in Maine and two in New Hampshire.

Delameter says Northeast is “kind of old fashioned” in that it doesn’t lend money to people it knows can’t afford to pay back.    Getting word out that not all banks have overextended themselves when it comes to loans has not been easy, he adds, noting that the media, to some degree, is to blame.

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This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Stephanie Harkness, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Plastics and Engineering in Sequel, California.  Their discussion comes amid news that Washington will now be focusing its financial injections into the small business community.

Pacific Plastics and Engineering, which manufactures critical parts for medical devices, computer components and more, employs more than 80 people and recorded its highest revenues ever last year.  She sees continued growth in the medical technology sector, and says “doom and gloom” sells newspapers, sometimes overshadows successful businesses and innovation.

She also fears a severe case of  “capital constipation” in an economy impaired by fear, and encourages a return to products rather than services to help boost confidence in the U.S. economy.

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This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Todd Lavieri, CEO & President of Archstone Consulting.  A leading management strategy and operations consultancy headquartered in Stamford, CT, Archstone has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Amsterdam.

Lavieri says the economic stimulus package from Washington has not really impacted the services industry to the extent it has others.  There could, however, be indirect benefits for employees, despite the continued lack of job creation nationwide.  “It should have been twice as big as it was or half the size,” said Lavieri.

He added that over half a trillion dollars in profits are currently sitting abroad, and questioned whether such funds could be repatriated at a one-time lower tax rate and invested to stimulate the economy.

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This week, host Sarwar Kashmeri speaks with Sandra Westlund-Deenihan, president and design engineer
Quality Float Works, Inc., a Schaumburg, Illinois company that manufactures parts for liquid controls in the oil, gas, plumping and agriculture industries. Westlund-Deenihan says her company had a relatively strong 2008, with record revenue growth, by diversifying its product line. The company will soon be using its products to help purify drinking water in the developing world.

“I’ve turned off the noise and just stayed focused,” she said, noting that she has not heard much about innovative small businesses in the mainstream media. “We are the driving force,” she added, “and have a lot of pointers that we can pass on to these ‘big boys.’ Most importantly, she said, small businesses already know how to create jobs as Washington seeks to generate nationwide employment.

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