Executives Prefer Obama to Romney on World Economy

     This was an interesting little poll as it seems to contradict a lot of the conventional wisdom in the U.S. that business leaders prefer Romney.

      We have the spectre of all the money Wall Street has given to Romney in this campaign. Also recently there was some speculation that the reason the market is up is that the market is betting on a Romney victory.

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/07/market-betting-on-romney-victory.html

       Today, however, a new poll from executives seems to deny this. To be sure this one is different:

       "Twice as many business executives around the world say the global economy will prosper better with President Barack Obama than with Mitt Romney, according to a poll out Friday."

       "Democrat Obama was chosen by 42.7 percent in the 1,700-respondent poll, compared with 20.5 percent for Romney. The rest said "neither."

        http://www.cnbc.com/id/48699694

        That's a pretty healthy margin of victory. However, it's of worldwide executives rather than just American:

         "The result was different among respondents in the United States, where a slim majority thought Romney would be better for their businesses than Obama."

         So more American executives think Romney is better but not by nearly the margin worldwide that prefers Obama.

          In other news, the market is up mildly on some better than expected economic news:

          "U.S. consumer sentiment improved in early August to its highest level in three months as sales at retailers and low mortgage rates spurred Americans to buy more. A separate gauge of future U.S. economic activity also improved in July."

         " But concerns about rising food prices caused a jump in both short- and long-term inflation expectations, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey showed."

         "The preliminary reading on the index on consumer sentiment rose to its highest level since May at 73.6 from 72.3 last month, topping economists' forecasts for a slight uptick to 72.4."

         "Although the growth rate in personal consumption expenditures can be expected to rebound from the second quarter lull, growth can be expected to remain just under two percent to the end of the first quarter of 2013," survey director Richard Curtain said in a statement."

          http://www.cnbc.com/id/48701145

          So is this concern over food prices going to be more gist in the mill for the Fed hawks?

          P.S. While some have suggested the rallying market means Romney is expected to win, empirically the opposite is suggested. Normally when markets rise in an election year, the incumbent wins.