And then there are promising innovations like the gasoline-powered Scuderi engine, whose developer is reporting some massive leaps in fuel economy, at least in laboratory tests.

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The biggest movement between the first and second quarters was in the percentage of executives reporting optimism about the economy, dipping by 10 points.

FORBES: Bad News For Obama As U.S. Private Company Optimism Sours

In the Q2 earnings reporting period, there have been signs of weakness in some parts of the tech economy, in particular in networking stocks.

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Which raises another question - are we reporting business sentiment properly when we concentrate on views about the economy in general, rather than using these surveys as a snapshot of first-hand experience?

BBC: Go Figure: The great business confidence gap

Please continue your reporting on the economy, but leave analysis on race to those with actual expertise and background in such matters.

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