The New York Times runs an excellent editorial this morning about the problems with the current immigration bill. You can find the full text here.

Meanwhile, Kauffman is promoting a new report on The State of Entrepreneurial Activity with the following summary:

“The latest assessment of entrepreneurial activity by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation provides startling numbers for yet another year. The new report shows that an average of 465,000 people creating new businesses each month in 2006. Besides year-to-year changes in entrepreneurship activity, the Kauffman Index — defined as the percent of the adult U.S. population of non-business owners who start a business as their main job each month — captures long-term trends. The 2006 figure is up slightly from the previous year, it is equal to the average rate for the past ten years.

“Other highlights from the past year include: Asians, Latinos and immigrants far outpaced native-born Americans in entrepreneurial activity; African Americans experienced a decline; entrepreneurial activity for men did not change between 2005-2006, ending a downward trend that began in 2003; and, the rate of entrepreneurial activity for women declined slightly. The report also contains data on activity at the state level. The five states with the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity were Montana, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma and Maine. The five states with the lowest rates of entrepreneurial activity were Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Illinois and Delaware.

“Conducted by Robert Fairlie of the University of California at Santa Cruz, the Index is a key component and one of the 26 top indicators in the compilation of the Kauffman Foundation’s highly recognized State New Economy Index. That report, released earlier this year, is a state-by-state analysis of how state economies are transforming from an old industrial economic model based on “smokestack chasing” to an increasingly global-, knowledge- and innovation-based New Economy.”

Download the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. Then read this morning’s New York Times.