Economy on the Mend?
Sep 14th, 2009 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: EconomyThe White House is crowing about data indicating that the economy is no longer lying on its back with its legs waving and twitching in the air — and sounding remarkably like the previous Administration while they do it. Whether you want to buy the theory that Obama Administration policies have had a significant and positive impact on the severity and duration of the Great Recession (as the media is now styling it) is beside the point, in that it tells us little about the state of the economy and the state of the microbusinesses operating in it. The Conference Board’s index of economic indicators for August will be released in a week but the July numbers are promising; the behavior of the indexes signals the recession may be bottoming out.
Meanwhile, both consumer confidence and small business owner optimism are sending signals of their own that appear to be mixed but, overall, positive. The NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index is up by more than 2 points, with seven of ten components advancing and the most significant gain to be found in the number of small business owners expecting the economy to improve. And The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence is back in the black after losing ground for two months straight. Consumers are more positive in their assessment of their job prospects, too, although they remain downbeat about income gains. Micros with low operating costs are probably in the best shape to ride out this ‘jobless recovery’; the worst is likely over.
