Political pundits love to obsess over the unemployment rate. “Can President Obama win reelection if unemployment stays above 8 percent?” “What number for unemployment is bad news for the president, and what number helps him out?” But that talk is detached from the reality of the economy. Small businesses around the country know that there’s still an employment problem, even as the official unemployment rate drops from a high of 10.1 percent in 2010 to 8.1 percent today.

This week I was fortunate enough to have Lieutenant Commander Jeffery Lay on my Sirius XM radio show, and he was a great guest. A 24-year veteran of the Navy—and a graduate of the famous TOPGUN school—he has turned his eye toward Wall Street and corporate America since his retirement from active duty, and he has some great ideas.