Small-business indicators up - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Most of the gain in the ’ Index of Small Businese Optimism was due to an increase in the numbefrof small-business owners who expectr business conditions to improve in the next six Before last month, most small-business owners thought the economty would get worse; now a net 4 percenr think it will get More small businesses reduced employment than added and NFIB predicts the unemployment rate will stay abovre 6 percent in the coming months. The survey also found weak numbers for capital expendituress as well as plans for investmentz innew equipment.
“While Fed policy may be keeping financinhgcosts low, the weak economy has reduce the need for expansion and new and put pressure on cash flows, inducing owner to postpone discretionary capital outlays,” said NFIB Chieft Economist William Dunkelberg. Inflation was tied with weak sales as the biggest problemfacing small-business Only 2 percent said the cost and availability of credit was their biggest problem. Consumer bankruptcy filings were up 29 percentf in August compared with the same month ayear ago, accordinhg to the . Consumers filed 96,4123 bankruptcy cases this August — the highest monthl y number since new bankruptcy rules went into effecf inOctober 2005.
The changes force more debtors to pay off more oftheirt debts. Despite these tougher there is “a growing trend of U.S. consumers to seek bankruptcy as a way out offinanciaol problems,” said ABI Executive Director Samuel While consumers account for most bankruptcy filings by businesses also were up dramatically. Business filingx totaled 33,882 in the 12-month perioxd that ended June 30, 2008, a 42 percent increase over theprevious 12-month period. Institutional investors ownerd 76 percent of the stock ofthe nation’zs 1,000 largest corporations at the end of according to a new report by the Conferencer Board.
That’s another record high for institutional which are defined aspension funds, investment insurance companies, banks and Twenty years ago, institutional investors owned only 47 percent of the stocki of the 1,000 largest U.S. corporations.