By Bill Conerly, Oregon Economist
Businomics, Conerly Consulting LLC [5]
Along with a number of other indicators, the attitudes of CEOs are improving, according to data from Chief Executive [6] magazine.
[7]
This survey matches lots of other indicators: steep decline last fall, an apparent bottom in the first quarter, and a mild recovery–maybe–in recent months. CEO attitudes are important to capital spending decisions, as well as hiring and layoffs. In general, I like to model these decisions based on fundamentals, but there are times of uncertainty, when execs simply do not know the true probabilities of the risks they face, and they have to go with their guts. This is such a time.