{"id":986236,"date":"2026-08-07T07:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/986236\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T07:01:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:01:39","slug":"ceos-arent-confident-in-the-u-s-economy-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/986236\/","title":{"rendered":"CEOs aren’t confident in the U.S. economy right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u200bCEOs of major companies are not feeling particularly good about the economy right now \u2014 much like everyone else<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As a group, they are slightly more confident now than they were a few months ago, right after the Iran war started, but not by much, according to the latest survey<\/a> from The Conference Board and The Business Council. <\/p>\n

CEOs\u2019 feelings matter for everyone else \u2014 and it has been one shock after another for the C-suite these last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cTariffs last year \u2014 which they adjusted to \u2014 Ukraine before that, and now the Iran situation and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>,\u201d said Steve Odland, CEO of The Conference Board.<\/p>\n

Odland is also the former CEO of both AutoZone and Office Depot.<\/p>\n

\u201cCEOs are looking at all this,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir supply chains are not normal, the rates of inflation<\/a> are not normal, the rates of borrowing are not normal, and so they’re sitting here waiting for things to get back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever \u201cnormal\u201d even is anymore. <\/p>\n

Kevin Jacques, a former economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury said some uncertainty is just part of running a business. However, the degree of uncertainty lately has made it hard for CEOs to make key decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many people do I hire?\u201d Jacques said. \u201cTo what degree do I invest in new plants and new equipment and new machinery? \u2026 To what degree do I raise the price of my product?\u201d<\/p>\n

And all of those decisions add up to have a big effect on the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s important for CEOs to be confident,\u201d Jacques said. \u201cWe want the companies to grow. We want them to be profitable. We want the economy to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, that\u2019s not really happening to the degree most people would like.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy confidence level in the U.S. economy is probably at the lowest I’ve felt since 2008,\u201d said Matthew Hassett, founder and CEO of Loftie, which sells alarm clocks and sleep products.<\/p>\n

Oil and freight prices, supply chain challenges, and tariffs have all made Hassett\u2019s world difficult to navigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very hard to plan and to invest when you don’t know what the price of your good is going to be when you actually sell it,\u201d Hassett said.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s hard to grow the business \u2014 or hire \u2014 when it feels like at any minute, something major could happen and change the entire calculus. <\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u200bCEOs of major companies are not feeling particularly good about the economy right now \u2014 much like everyone…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":986237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,38477,79,6087,3657,24925,75,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-986236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ceos","tag-economy","tag-iran-war","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-supply-chain","tag-tariff","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117052945592643291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}