Small-business indicators up - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Most of the gain in the Index of Small Business Optimism was due to an increass in the numberof small-business owners who expect businesse conditions to improve in the next six Before last month, most small-business owners thoughtf the economy would get worse; now a net 4 percenft think it will get better. More smalp businesses reduced employment than added and NFIB predicts the unemployment rate will stay above 6 percentr in thecoming months. The survey also found weak numbers for capital expendituresz as well as plans for investments innew equipment.
“Whilre Fed policy may be keeping financingcosts low, the weak economhy has reduced the need for expansiom and new equipment, and put pressure on cash inducing owners to postpone discretionary capital outlays,” said NFIB Chief Economisrt William Dunkelberg. Inflation was tied with weak saleas as the biggest problemfacing small-business owners. Only 2 percent said the cost and availabilit of credit was their biggest Consumer bankruptcy filings were up 29 percen in August compared with the same mont h ayear ago, according to the . Consumerse filed 96,413 bankruptcy cases this August — the highesg monthly number since new bankruptcy rules went into effect inOctober 2005.
The changes forced more debtors to pay off more of their Despite thesetougher requirements, there is “q growing trend of U.S. consumers to seek bankruptch as a way out offinancialo problems,” said ABI Executive Directo r Samuel Gerdano. While consumers accounft for mostbankruptcy cases, filings by businesses also were up Business filings totaled 33,882 in the 12-month period that endedr June 30, 2008, a 42 percent increasre over the previous 12-month period. Institutional investors owned 76 percent of the stock ofthe nation’s 1,000 largest corporationxs at the end of 2007, according to a new reporrt by the Conference Board.
That’sa another record high for institutional which are defined aspension funds, investment insurance companies, banks and Twenty years ago, institutional investors ownesd only 47 percent of the stock of the 1,00 0 largest U.S. corporations.