On September 10 the September Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey (pdf) was released.  It contains a variety of statistics regarding how CFOs view business and economic conditions.

In this CFO Survey, I found the following to be the most notable excerpts:

In the next year, earnings are expected to increase by about 13 percent among public U.S. companies.

“Even with numerous risks and uncertainties affecting the global economy, U.S. firms have been able to protect the bottom line, operating at near-record profit levels,” said Graham. “By year-end 2014, U.S. firms expect return on assets to jump above 10 percent for the first time since 2007.”

also:

The U.S. Business Optimism Index fell slightly to 58 on a scale from 0 to 100, just below the long-run average index value of 59. Latin American CFOs are the most optimistic in the world (61, down from 66 last quarter and 69 two quarters ago). European optimism rebounded to 56 (up from 53), followed by Asia 54 (down from 62). African (53) CFOs are the least optimistic about the economic future over the next year.

The CFO survey contains the Optimism Index chart, showing U.S. Optimism (with regard to the economy) at 58, as seen below:

(click on image to enlarge)

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Please Note – The above is abstracted from the EconomicGreenfield.com (published by StratX, LLC) post of October 9, 2013, titled “September 2013 Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey – Notable Excerpts”

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StratX, LLC offers the above commentary for informational purposes only, and does not necessarily agree with the views expressed by these outside parties.

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StratX, LLC is a management consulting firm and strategic advisory that focuses on the analysis of current and future weak(ening) economic conditions, and offers businesses and other entities advice, strategies, and actionable methods on how to optimally adapt to such challenging, complex conditions.