Another Misnomer Of An Optimism Index Report

July just wasn’t small business owners’ month.  The National Federation of Independent Business has released its regular report documenting optimism (based on a number of less subjective components), and things were worse compared to June.

Here’s the bad news/good news setup: the small business owners the NFIB surveyed were indeed less optimistic in July than in June, with an official score dropping from 87.8 to 86.5.  But on the bright side, things sat at 81.0 in March, so we’re still up in that respect.

As for some less ambiguous stats, well . . . unfortunately, a lot of optimism index components did drop on a month-over-month basis.  In fact, "plan to increase employment," "expect economy to improve," "expect higher retail sales," "current job openings," "expected credit conditions," and "earnings trends" all fell.

Bill Dunkelberg, the NFIB’s chief economist, observed in a statement, "Nineteen months of recession are wearing heavily on Main Street."

And unfortunately, Wall Street’s not doing so well at the moment, either, with the Dow down about 1.00 percent.  So continue to hang tight and keep your fingers crossed in the hope for a quick and full recovery.