More than 40 percent are less optimistic about the national economy than they were when President Barack Obama took office, compared with 26 percent who are more optimistic. Nearly half think Obama will serve only one term in office. When asked their political affiliation, 42 percent said they were Republicans, 34 percent said they were independents and 16 percent said they were Democrats.
The NFIB’s latest report on small business sentiment is out. The NFIB’s Optimism Index is one of the longest standing indices of small business sentiment, and so I tend to place a lot of weight on it.
It shows that conditions and sentiment are not a pretty sight among small businesses.
Although there have been some tiny signals — albeit weak signals — from other sources suggesting things may be looking up in the economy, you wouldn’t know it from looking at the NFIB report. First of all, there’s this chart:
