By The Economist
On April 5th 2012 the pitched political battles in Washington, DC, briefly paused as Barack Obama signed a law endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats. The Jump Start Our Business Act—for short, the JOBS Act—was designed to make it easier for small companies to raise equity capital. It would, the president said, increase the ability of companies to go public, increase oversight and transparency, and provide opportunities for “a big, new pool of potential investors ….to go online and invest in entrepreneurs that they believe in.”
