{"id":105,"date":"2010-08-14T23:56:47","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T06:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libertymusings.com\/blog\/?p=105"},"modified":"2010-08-14T23:56:47","modified_gmt":"2010-08-15T06:56:47","slug":"confidence-in-the-economy-and-in-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.libertymusings.com\/blog\/confidence-in-the-economy-and-in-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidence in the economy and in the media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discover Card publishes a report it calls Small Business Watch<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

They reported an increase in confidence in April and May (from 85.1 to 87.4), a\u00a0slight decrease\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0is 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.<\/p>\n

Links: Click here to read my essay on corruption in the media<\/a>.
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