Business: Bearish Bosses

Among business decision makers, optimism about the future of the economy is at its lowest level in years. That gloomy statistic comes from a survey of "executive confidence" by the marketing firm of Sindlinger & Co. In a three-week period ending early in April, a nationwide sample of 230 owners and managers was queried. Only 50.9% of them thought that business conditions, employment and their own incomes would not be worse six months from now. This was the smallest percentage since July 1960, just after the last recession began. In January 1969, when President Nixon was inaugurated, the confidence level stood at 87.9%. It has been dropping fairly steadily ever since.

The company also takes a poll of consumer confidence. For the first time, says President Albert E. Sindlinger, that survey shows marked regional variations. Confidence is still high in rural areas and the South, but it is low where defense, construction and consumer durable-goods industries are based. "Up until March of this year, the public generally pointed to high prices and inflation as the most important task facing President Nixon," says Sindlinger. "Just in the last two weeks, though, people are switching to talk of recession as his biggest problem."