Banker & Tradesman’s annual reader survey, conducted with Sudbury-based market research firm Bannon & Co., indicates that overall, the mood in the Massachusetts financial and real estate sectors is getting better. A majority of respondents – 60.3 percent – expect the Massachusetts economy to “improve moderately” this year – a 5 percent increase from last year.
Survey respondents were a little more pessimistic about the risk of economic stagnation in Massachusetts than they were a year ago at this time. Thirty-three percent – compared with 29 percent a year ago – expect the state’s economy to stagnate.
The outlook for the national economy is still bright, but a little less so than a year ago. Forty-nine percent of respondents think the nation’s economy will improve moderately in 2014. Last year, 52 percent of respondents expected moderate improvement.
But while concern over political gridlock in Washington has lessened from a year ago – with 11.9 percent of respondents saying it “completely” affected their business in 2013, compared with 16 percent in 2012 – the numbers still aren’t good. A disturbing 68 percent of respondents said political gridlock “moderately” affected their business in 2013.
“The gridlock translates to business indecision at a national level with translates emotionally and economically to the local level,” one reader wrote.
Another reader wrote: “Congress and the administration play a cat and mouse game, not much compromise. Harry Reid’s death grip on the Senate and his opinions are not helpful. Reducing the 60 vote rule to invite Obama’s appointments almost without opposition is shameless. That will come back to bite Reid. Obamacare seems to be a mess that Band-Aids won’t fix – costs/access are in inverse proportion. Energy is stalled. Kerry thinks he’s the VP. VP thinks he’s the Secretary of State. No Republican candidate yet!!!”
“We have dysfunctional government, partly because the Republicans want Obama to fail, and partly because Obama has not been a strong leader,” wrote another reader.
Yet another wrote: “’Someday they will wake up and say, ‘We could have gotten a lot more done if we had just worked together.’”
We couldn’t agree more.
We’ve written a lot on these pages about the impact of our ineffective political leadership in Washington. Lawmakers have a duty to keep our economy on the right footing by avoiding a crisis in confidence – which is exactly what happened late last year with the government shutdown.
While that crisis could have been much, much worse, it appears that Congress and President Obama won’t be getting comfy with each other anytime soon. In fact, quite the opposite.
But it is incumbent on our leaders to cooperate to avoid what’s unfortunately becoming a pattern.
