Despite the plethora of propagandist panderings, the reality of the Business Roundtable (BRT - an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies) findings are far less enthralling than the headlines might suggest. In fact, despite the protestation that their economic outlook ticked up - which as the chart below shows so evidently - is merely a reversion to the lows of 2011; the sad 'fact' is that expectations for higher Sales, CapEx, and Employment are as bad as they have been since early 2010. CapEx, the much-vaunted miracle driver of revenues this year, is below Q4 2009 levels of expectation. Even the BRT itself offers up the words 'moderate' when describing the changes and yet the mainstream media pounce on an uptick like cardinals to the new Pope. It appears that we will have to wait another quarter to see what the CEOs of the nations largest companies are really doing as their stocks soar to record highs.
The BRT CEO Economic Outlook in context... back at the lows of the pre-crisis and post-crisis 2010 lows - and as is very clear, the hope in the blue lines continues to be dragged back to reality of the economy (green line)...
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and in more detail - across the various findings, the expectations for improving Sales, CapEx, and Employment has one trend... and its not up...
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Charts: Bloomberg, Business Roundtable