Market Slowdown in 2008?

By Mark Brousseau

Fifty-eight percent of those responding to a recent TAWPI Question of the Week said they had an optimistic outlook for the economy in 2008, while 42 percent of respondents said they didn’t (note: those responding in the positive did so before the recent stock market dive).

Clint Shank (cshank@sortlogic.com) of SortLogic SYSTEMS, a division of Omni-Soft, Inc., sides firmly with the pessimists. “In this election year, a lot of what we’ll see is the same as what we’ve seen these first few weeks of January, and that’s a lot of volatility. There’s been a significant drop in the stock market, and that’s telling,” Shank told me. “A lot of people aren’t comfortable with how things might work out; how stable their job is, as an example.”

“In our market, we could see a slow down because of the volatility,” Shank said. “Good, bad or indifferent, market volatility will affect the banking market as users pull back and wait to see how things turn out with the economy and the election. There’s a sense that there could be a change of parties in the White House, and that would bring new tax rules and guidelines, among other things. Banks will want to see what happens before making big investments.”

“I personally don’t think this is going to be a great year for vendors,” Shank said. “I think next year, if the new presidency gets off to a good start, we could see more of an up tick.”

What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.