According to a monthly survey carried out for the Conference Board and The Business Council, CEO confidence is currently the highest it has ever been, or at least dating back to when attempts to measure it began in 1976. But expectations of exceptional growth prospects are being tempered by limitations arising from: (a) shutdowns necessitated by critical parts shortages; (b) rapidly climbing commodity and other input price increases; (c) difficulty in recruiting qualified workers to fill manpower requirements; and (d) bottlenecks in transportation delivery systems.
The business community has been expressing an understanding that two ways to resolve its critical problems are through higher wages and more capital spending. The additional investment may initially be in the means to continue riding the wave of technological advancement that has accelerated during the past year-and-a-quarter’s health crisis. In many instances, however, demands for new equipment and more backroom support services will lead to bigger ‘footprints’, which is just another way of saying construction.
Consumers, while more than normally optimistic, are not feeling quite as enthusiastically exuberant as CEOs. Their ardor is being held back by vanishing government income support measures and inflation that’s marching upwards once again, led by the price of gasoline.
