America’s CEO is in a dumpster. The CEO’s sentiment plummeted from 42 in the second quarter to 34 from 57 in his first three months of the year, according to a new study from the Conference Board.
Early in the Joe Biden administration, when businesses were still celebrating the unpredictable departure of Donald Trump, COVID-19 appeared to be waning and Democratic spending surged to drive widespread inflation. The index reached an all-time high of 82 before the
Recent figures are approaching the extreme pessimism that characterized the Great Recession of 2008-2009, when Barack Obama was in the White House.
Who can blame our business leaders? The economy is weakening, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, and the ideologues in the Biden administration are changing the rules and choosing winners and losers. We are picking and slaughtering our industry. Oh — and tax increases too.
When our country is on the brink of recession, the last thing we need is a White House to undermine business confidence, but that’s what we have.
The White House isn’t just punishing businesses such as oil and gas companies that stand in the way of a green new world. The Biden administration is also captivated by big labour. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) promotes unionization nationwide, even if it means bending the rules.
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is actively blocking future key mergers and acquisitions for some companies. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is focusing investment capital in favorable sectors, increasing workplace diversity mandates, and requiring companies to go public. Private enterprises.
When Biden issued an executive order mandating a “whole-of-government approach” to resolving climate change and racial inequality, who imagined the extent to which federal agencies would participate in pursuing those ambitions there were few.
Biden’s advisers, who are mostly academics and activists and don’t have much real-world experience, believe they know better than the people who created them about how to manage a country’s investments and businesses. increase. The laughably titled Inflation Reduction Act included his 1% tax on stock buybacks. This is because Democrats needed revenue to fund their climate fantasies, but progressives such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, Massachusetts) will reward shareholders, even if it does.
The White House abuses allies and foes alike.
Something is very wrong when Starbucks, a notoriously liberal corporation, accuses the NLRB of illegally interfering in union votes. Starbucks management and employees have made generous donations to Democratic causes and candidates. But here we report that NLRB agents manipulated the voting process to help the workers’ coalition win the election and worked together to cover up wrongdoing.
Starbucks isn’t the only left-wing company to complain about Mr. Biden’s bowing to big workers. After a successful union campaign at a Staten Island facility, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon accused his NLRB of “inappropriate and unwarranted influence” in the voting process. President Biden then personally encouraged unionization efforts at an Amazon facility in Alabama. That drive failed, so the NLRB ordered his second vote.
NLRB isn’t the only one looking out of control. The FTC prohibits business combinations, not just big tech. Just recently, the FTC surprised industry observers by banning Meta from acquiring smaller virtual reality companies. Venture capitalists have expressed concern that the FTC will undermine key growth strategies of big tech companies such as Meta through such actions.
It follows chip maker Nvidia’s FTC blockade from buying Arm, which licenses the chip technology used in most smartphones, and Lockheed Martin’s attempt to buy rocket maker Aerodyne. .
Elsewhere, the SEC is taking rearguard action to direct investment funds away from fossil fuels and towards green energy.
It’s fighting climate change, building an organized workforce, and curbing what the president calls the monopoly power of centralized industries. a small number of companies, claiming it was not a reckless spending by the party.
Of course, Democrats are also raising taxes on big business, but big business isn’t getting its “fair share,” according to Biden. The reality is that American businesses pay taxes designed by Congress and take advantage of deductions created to drive investment and other priorities. No wonder management is feeling depressed.
why should you care? The hiring and investment decisions made by corporate leaders will determine whether and how deep a recession will be. The outlook is now bleak.
A Conference Board survey found that about 93% of CEOs believe they will be in a shallow (81%) or deep (12%) recession in the next 12 to 18 months.
By contrast, only half of CEOs expect to hire more employees in the next year, down from 63% last quarter. Additionally, his 82% of CEOs expect their capital budget to increase or remain unchanged over the next 12 months, down from his 93% just three months ago.
All of this reminds me of the days of President Obama. President Obama has destroyed businesses large and small with a slew of new regulations, eroding CEO confidence and slowing economic growth. It’s not rocket science. Investment and employment will boost growth. If you create roadblocks to prosperity, those who take risks and are responsible for making those decisions will hesitate and the economy will falter.
America’s recovery from the Great Recession was the slowest on record. Many of us at the time blamed the meddling President Obama’s White House for impeding our snapback, and Joe Biden seems to be following the same path.
No wonder our CEO is in the dumpster.
Liz Peek is a former partner of Wertheim & Company, a large bracket Wall Street firm. Follow her on her Twitter @lizpeek.
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