Nearly three out of four business executives have an optimistic view of the U.S. economy over the next 12 months, a consensus not seen since before the Great Recession, according to the fourth-quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey, which polls chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers and other certified public accountants in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles. While the survey was fielded with tax reform deliberations underway, it’s important to note it closed before passage of the Senate tax bill this past weekend, so survey sentiment does not reflect that development. Read more...

A new report by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a grassroots organization that strives to create opportunities to grow wealth, finds that racial disparity exists in small business lending opportunities. Read more...

According to Small Business Trends, cyber security is just as important for small businesses as it is for large businesses. However, many small businesses refrain from getting a system because they have no idea how to begin. Read more...

Small Business Saturday’s eighth year showed a decline in spending, reports CNBC. Over all 108 million shoppers spent $12.9 billion, which is in both shoppers and dollars. In 2016 112 million shoppers spending more than $15 billion. Read more...