Startups in U.S. at 13-Year High

Entrepreneurship is back: Nearly 13 percent of American were starting or running new businesses in 2012, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the U.S. since at least 1999. That's according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual report published by Babson College and Baruch College. Here's more good news: Three out of four Americans starting a business are doing so because they see an opportunity, not because they can't find a job and are going out on their own out of necessity. More than 43 percent of Americans think there are good opportunities for entrepreneurs in the U.S. today. That's also the highest rate for this question in the survey's 13-year history. But fear of failure also is growing: One out of three Americans who see business opportunities feel constrained by the possibility that they won't succeed, up from one in four in 2008,