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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DebtBomb who wrote (97137)	12/12/2007 12:58:02 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 306849

here is a survey that deserves attention... loans are easy to get and yet pessimism on the economy is rising... why??? axcessnews.com Small Business optimism hits 14-year low By Staff (AXcess News) New York - The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said optimism in the US economy by small business owners in November fell to a 14-year low, according to its latest survey of business owners. CNBC reported minutes ago that the NFIB index of small business optimism fell 1.8 points to 94.4 in November, its lowest level since 1993. In October, the index slid 1.1 points to 96.2 over September's small business confidence level. "Things were looking good until September 18 when the Fed warned that the economy was sinking," said NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg. After the Sept. 18 Federal Reserve rate cut, small business firms cut spending and hiring plans, Dunkelberg said. "The logical response of small-business owners was to cut hiring, capital spending and other growth-related activities." The widely anticipated Federal Reserve rate cut today won't help to ease small business owners concern over the economy either. The number of small business owners planning to add jobs over the next three months grew by 11%, but is still 3% below small business owners outlook in September. Those small business owners planning to make capital expenditures during the next three months remained unchanged at 27%, yet 13% of owners thought this was a good time to expand. While the Federal Reserve doesn't seem to be too worried about inflation, small business owners are wary. "The Fed may be preoccupied with recession but small-business owners' reports of price hikes suggest that inflation can't be dismissed," said Dunkelberg. "The historic relationship between inflation and the percent of owners reporting higher prices suggests that inflation will be showing some new, unwanted, vitality." The net percent of owners reporting higher average selling prices rose six points to 15 percent of all firms. Plans to raise prices also gained a point to 22 percent of all owners. Unadjusted, 25 percent reported raising average selling prices, up four points, and 13 percent reported lower selling prices, unchanged. On Main Street, credit conditions continue to look normal. Regular borrowing activity was reported by 36 percent of the owners, unchanged and typical of readings for the past 15 years. The net percent of owners reporting loans harder to get in recent months fell to a net 6 percent (7 percent said "harder," one percent said "easier"), typical of readings for the past several years. "Clearly we are not experiencing a credit crunch by any standard," said Dunkelberg.