Tom Stewart, Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market at Ohio State University

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As this is being recorded, on the 11th of April, 2020, what good news we see and hear is almost entirely in the context of people making extraordinarily good things happen in the face of what, for most Americans living today, is the worst crisis we’ve ever faced. So, especially now, it’s good to be reminded of how, at its core, the U.S. economy, in its essential design around the free and voluntary exchange of goods and services — including research, technology, and good ideas — is the perfect and proper vehicle for leading us out of this. And so, it’s extremely valuable to have new research to not only show how the coronavirus is affecting business but also to show how business people already are looking toward the day when this is all behind us.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The National Center for the Middle Market at Ohio State University conducts a quarterly survey to establish a benchmark. It’s worth taking a look back at the surveys it conducted in the summer and fall of 2019.</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Listen to Ray Hoffman’s conversation with Tom Stewart, Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> <br /></span></p> <h1><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Key Takeaways:</strong></span></h1> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[1:39] Ray Hoffman asks Tom Stewart about business optimism in late 2019. Every quarter, the National Center for the Middle Market surveys 1,000 companies with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion. In the third quarter, they saw a sudden drop in confidence and projected sales after a long expansion.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[2:18] In the fourth quarter, those numbers came back up but the trendline showed slowing rates of growth. Projected rates of growth