CEOs Predict Mild Recession, Flat Market In New Survey, CEOs More Optimistic Than Corporate Directors

“Although cannot see clear off-ramp just yet, I’m expecting the Russia/Ukraine war to show positive signs of concluding without growing into a larger conflict,” says the director of a large medical equipment manufacturer.   

“I believe Putin will sustain war efforts in Ukraine, which will continue global supply chain disruptions that hurt the world economy, including the U.S.,” says the director at a small financials company.  

The Race for President 

Finally, we wanted to get an early look at your take on the upcoming presidential election, and we found a whopping 81 percent of CEOs in our poll think Ron DeSantis will have the best odds of most likely next U.S. president as of December 2023—at least according to bookmakers. Only 7 percent think it will be Joe Biden.   

In comparison, 60 percent of directors in our poll think Ron DeSantis will have the best odds of becoming the U.S. president as of December 2023 and 26 percent say it will be Joe Biden.   

Only 2 percent of CEOs think it will be Mike Pence and 0 percent think it will be Donald Trump. Directors agree, where only one percent of directors believe that Mike Pence or Donald Trump will have the best odds of becoming president at this time next year.  

“Trump will fade given all of his legal challenges, warranted or not,” says the director at a midsize company in the consumer discretionary sector. “The Republicans will have a large field.” 

For those keeping score, UK betting platform Ladbrokes most recently listed odds of DeSantis at 21-10 or a 32.3 percent probability of being the next president, followed by Biden at 3-1 or 25 percent probability. Trump was third, at 11-2 odds or 15.4 percent. Pence was a longshot to even get the GOP nomination, with 20-1 odds for getting his party’s nod, about the same as Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin.