Mason Gaffney asked:
> Can anyone point me to a modern economist who is ably rationalizing the 
> case
> for small business today?


Mason, the most prolific person in this area is David Audretsch (though he 
does not focus on distributed knowledge per se). Other modern economists 
working on the nature and economic impact of small enterprise include Simon 
Parker, Scott Shane, and Zoltan Acs. Check out recent issues of _Small 
Business Economics_, the _Journal of Business Venturing_, and 
_Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice_ for a sampling of current work on 
small and medium enterprises. (Don't expect many citations to Schumacher or 
Veblen, however!)

Peter Klein