According to a semi-annual survey, American Express Small Business Monitor, small business owners remain optimistic about growth. 43% expect to see growth in their small businesses. This is only down a bit from 49% a year ago, which given all of the doom and gloom in the media is pretty remarkable. Unemployment is down, inflation worries are easing, interest rates have stabilized, but you would think we are entering the next Great Depression. Some of this is a continuing focus on the old economy by the media and politicians. They still want to measure only half of what is going on in our economy and ignore the half that is made up by small businesses. One note on this survey — it was taken when gas prices were still high and there were scares about heating costs. I wonder what the same survey would now show with lower gas prices and forecasts of cheap natural gas prices this winter.
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