SmallBusinessNewz

Whatever silver linings the recession's created apparently became much harder to find this month.  The latest Discover Small Business Watch report indicated that the average small business owners' confidence fell by quite a lot between July and August.

Discover, which based its conclusions on a survey involving 750 small business owners, found that the drop in confidence qualified as "the largest one-month decline since November 2009."

More specifically, the confidence index plummeted 17.4 points on a month-over-month basis to a record low of 65.5 points, and a record 55 percent of small business owners indicated that they expect unfavorable economic conditions for their firms over the next six months.

Also, 62 percent of small business owners think the overall state of the economy is poor, and another 62 percent believe it is growing worse.

That makes the situation appear somewhat dire.  Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business card, said in a statement, "There's growing concern that the economy is stuck in neutral, or even sliding, and small business owners definitely reflected that sentiment this month."

Unfortunately, the Dow's down 0.72 percent and the Nasdaq's down 1.03 percent so far today, too.