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by David R. Brousell, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | U.S. manufacturers' confidence in the economy drops 14 points as the credit crisis spreads, a new MA poll reveals. |
Call it a gut feeling. About two weeks before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben. S. Bernanke told a Senate committee on Nov. 8, 2007 that he expected the U.S. economy to "slow noticeably" in the coming months, manufacturers had already sensed that economic storm clouds were gathering. In a new, exclusive Managing Automation poll conducted in mid-October, U.S. manufacturers reported a 14 percentage point drop in expectations about economic growth for the coming year, compared with 2007. Moreover, fully one-third of the poll's respondents said they are beginning to feel the heat from the nation's deepening credit crisis brought on by the sub-prime mortgage lending fiasco. The sharp downturn in manufacturers' confidence in the state of the U.S. economy in 2008 has also begun to trickle down to how they feel about the prospects for their own businesses in 2008. The latest poll registered a 6 percentage point drop in confidence levels year over year. [Click to continue] |