Business

Here's another interesting graph showing the sentiments of small business owners in this country hitting a new low. I can go on and on about the decline of the small business in America and the impact on the overall economy. Ironically, Wells Fargo (who conducted this poll with Gallup) is probably one of the biggest culprits of this current mess (in my opinion...I'm sure there are more evil banks) systematically reducing credit across the board to small business owners after making their money on such moral things as money laundering and predatory lending. The WF banker told me this credit tightening was systematic and produced many irate customers. (That same day, I closed my WF accounts and moved over to WECU.)

I envision that things will only get worse, with one of the biggest issues being the small businesses' inaccessibility to credit for working capital and equipment/inventory purchases. Meanwhile, the large caps continue to chug along (the S&P500 performance has basically been flat over the past five years) - systematically reducing headcounts (ie, laying off) to offer their piddly earnings to those crazy enough to still own equities - while the small business owner (traditionally the generator of the bulk of new jobs in the U.S.) closes their doors or continues to see a dim outlook.

By reading the economic news from Wall Street, I see a pervasive disconnect from Main Street. Maybe I have been in the trenches too long an need to go back to the cubicle world. But given that choice, or spending my afternoon in a dentist chair (like yesterday), I think I would choose the latter. Oh well, back to work on another pleasant summer day in Bellingham.