Confidence in the economy and in the media

Discover Card publishes a report it calls Small Business Watch, and every month they survey the owners of small businesses of 5 or fewer employees. Their July report, just released, reflects a gloomy attitude toward the economy and a distrust of the government and the media.

They reported an increase in confidence in April and May (from 85.1 to 87.4), a slight decrease in June (86.1), and a tumble in July (83.0). The most serious of the negative numbers was their finding that a full 75% of small business owners felt that a second recession was likely. Of those surveyed, 57% felt the economy was already getting worse. Extrapolating from their data, an additional 18%, while they may believe that the economy isn’t getting worse right now, believe that it will dip back into another recession.

But to hear the economic reports out of the administration and the reporting by most of the news media, we are in a recovery, and the pace of the recovery has slowed, but things are still getting better. That is an awfully big credibility gap.

Another number they gave that shows a disconnect between the ruling class and the people is that only 3% of small business owners have applied for stimulus-funded SBA loans. My own experience as the owner of a small business is that I don’t look to the government for any help with anything – the only things they ever provide me are obstacles. We did get a tax credit for hiring someone who had been out of work for a while, but the credit was under $50 and barely worth the time it took to research it and fill out the paperwork. It certainly was not a factor in our decision to add another employee.

Links: Click here to read my essay on corruption in the media.

About mesasmiles

By Dr. David Hall. Dr. Hall runs Infinity Dental Web, a small company that does Internet marketing for dentists. He has had a long-standing interest in politics and as a college student toyed with the idea of a political career.
This entry was posted in Economy, Media. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *