In the thirty eight years that I have represented privately held companies in the middle market (a somewhat amorphous reference point, depending upon who you are talking with, but nonetheless a better than not understood reference), I have not witnessed such indecision in the business world by companies and their owners and management teams as I am witnessing now. The economy and all financial (stock market, employment, dollar valuation, etc.) indices have been trending downward for the last 4 years or at best stagnating at a low end of the economic spectrum.
What to do? As we all know, companies can not sit on the sidelines forever, because doing so will generally mean losing ground. But in today’s world, there are too many variables in flux, such as taxes, government regulations (or should I say, “over regulations”), general economic policies governing the conduct of business, banking regulations, etc. for companies to make intelligent, forward thinking plans and investments.
Unfortunately with the upcoming political race for the White House, the dilemma has only been exacerbated. Clearly, the two parties pose very different solutions for energizing the economy, and America, in general. Until the results are in, it likely will be difficult to witness any substantial change in the upcoming months.
Will we suffocate from holding our breath a little bit longer or finally exhale in relief?
