The conventional wisdom is that the babies, mostly girls, were abandoned by their parents because of the traditional preference for boys and China’s restrictions on family size. No doubt, that was the case for tens of thousands of the girls.

But some parents are beginning to come forward to tell harrowing stories of babies who were taken away by coercion, fraud or kidnapping — sometimes by government officials who covered their tracks by pretending that the babies had been abandoned.

Parents who say their children were taken complain that officials were motivated by the $3,000 per child that adoptive parents pay orphanages.

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That assessment came from leading forecasters in a survey by the National Association for Business Economics released Wednesday. It is generally in line with the outlook from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues.

About 74 percent of the forecasters expect the recession — which started in December 2007 and is the longest since World War II — to end in the third quarter. Another 19 percent predict the turning point will come in the final three months of this year, and the remaining 7 percent believe the recession will end in the first quarter of 2010.

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“Consumers are considerably less pessimistic than they were earlier this year,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center.

The data was in line with other evidence suggesting that, while the economy continues to contract in the current quarter, the pace of deterioration has abated somewhat.

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The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose more than 12 points to 39.2, up from a revised 26.9 in March. The reading marks the highest level since November’s 44.7 and well surpasses economists’ expectations for 29.5.

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Pricing Questions to Ask Now
Mark Loschiavo, senior executive in residence and executive director of the Baiada Center at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, has pinpointed the following four questions as the most important to consider when thinking about a price change.

1. Are you offering something your customers need? If not, you may need to drop prices to get a percentage of the customer’s wallet. During recessions, must-haves almost always trump nice-to-haves.
2. Are you offering an affordable luxury? During a recession, most consumers may still be willing to indulge a little.
3. Are you offering something that can help your customers weather the recession? If so, does your marketing and sales message drive this point home? Then you may be able to price accordingly. If not, you may need to drop prices.
4. Are you decidedly better than your competition? The more differentiated your products or services, the lower the associated price elasticity. But there are limits to this logic. Regardless of differentiation, at some point, the price or value trade-off will drive the market to the lower-priced alternative.

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His important points are that new startups must first consider whether they have a compelling products, whether the customer base is large enough and whether the “math” works, other points include pre-planning which wherher you must consider 1) Cost - how much is every aspect of the new business going to cost 2) Competitors - what are they doing and how is your business different 3) Math - how much do you need to sell to survive 4) test the products with customers.

1. SCORE: A nonprofit that provides free online and in-person mentoring via a national counseling force of 11,800 working and retired business owners and executives in nearly 400 chapters…

2. Small Business Development Centers: An expansive network of some 1,100 branch offices, delivering counseling, training and technical assistance in all aspects of small-business management. “Every startup needs three things,” says Kristin Johnson, director of the Northern California SBDC network. “A lawyer, an accountant and an SBDC advisor”…

3. SBA: Via the web and district offices, the SBA offers an array of tools and resources to help new and aspiring business owners succeed…

4. U.S. Chamber Small Business Center: This arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce provides comprehensive startup assistance via web-based tools and resources.

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