On October 7, I wrote a post about the latest Business Roundtable’s CEO Economic Outlook Survey and the Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey titled “CEO & CFO Surveys 3Q 2011.”
Subsequent to that post, on October 11, The Conference Board released its 3rd Quarter CEO Confidence Survey. The overall measure of CEO Confidence was at 42, down from 55 in the second quarter.
Notable excerpts from the October 11 Press Release include:
Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “CEO Confidence has declined substantially in the last two quarters and is now at its lowest level in over two years. Clearly, this prolonged period of slow growth is taking a toll on confidence, and expectations are that these lackluster conditions will persist through early 2012.”
also:
CEOs’ optimism about the short-term outlook also deteriorated sharply. Currently, about 19 percent of business leaders anticipate an improvement in economic conditions over the next six months, down from 43 percent in the second quarter. Expectations for their own industries are also quite negative, with approximately 22 percent of CEOs expecting conditions to improve in the months ahead, down from 44 percent last quarter.
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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored. However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.
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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation
SPX at 1225.38 as this post is written