Small Business America Is Quietly Bleeding Out

Praying for one more quarter of payroll 

While CNBC obsesses over Nvidia’s next chip and Powell’s next pause, Goldman’s latest 14-page economics note reads like an obituary for the people who actually run the U.S. economy: small business owners.

The U.S. economy’s backbone — small business — is being crushed by a trifecta of high rates, policy whiplash, and AI-driven consolidation. As usual, Wall Street is hedged, Silicon Valley is hiring prompt engineers, and Main Street is praying for one more quarter of payroll.