CEOs Finally Embrace New Economy

CEOs gloomier than public on U.S. economy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The vast majority of chief executives are gloomier about U.S. economic prospects than a year earlier, and top company officials have become more downbeat than the public at large, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Surely they can't be more gloomier than me. I'm trying to maintain some standards around here. Can't we just slap some duct tape on the illusion of prosperity bubble and call it good?

Some 90 percent of chief executives described U.S. economic conditions as fair or poor, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to NYSE Euronext's (NYSE:NYX - News; Paris:NYX.PA - News) fourth annual CEO survey, "Managing During Economic Turbulence."

16% to 90% in just one year? I'm going to say the most optimistic thing I've ever said on this blog. The gloominess has gone parabolic and I strongly suspect the top is nearly in. Call me crazy if you must, but I wouldn't expect it to breach the 100% theoretical maximum. Hurray!

That being said, I guess CEOs have given up on the Managing During the Great Moderation speech of 2004 though. Oh oh.

A gloomy outlook may bode ill for capital spending and job growth at a time when housing prices are falling, unemployment is rising, oil prices remain near record highs, and many Americans say they feel like the economy is in recession.

Yet CEOs are apparently more pessimistic than the public at large? What exactly is it that THEY see coming?

"The U.S. now faces the terrible combination of high and rising commodity prices -- inflation -- with low demand," Liveris said. "It's a situation we've not seen in the U.S. since the 1970s, and it makes for tremendous uncertainty."

Queue the 1970s style sunshine.