There is a very encouraging report from the Institute for Supply Management, anticipating a strong 2010 rebound in revenues for domestic manufacturers.  Their survey of purchasing and supply-chain managers, conducted for the ISM’s December 2009 Semiannual Economic Forecast, anticipates a 5.7% increase next year. There’s nowhere to go but up, presumably, especially considering that the same source calculates manufacturing revenues decreased -10.7% from in 2009 from 2008.

Note that they are not forecasting a complete recovery, about halfway to “break even,” but it would enough to allow everyone to agree that the recession of 2008-2009 has ended.

Consider how valuable that consensus would be: It would generate the confidence that businesses need to expand and invest in new equipment, products and services; to rebuild inventory; and to rehire workers.  It would lift the national and global economies, which would improve everyone’s circumstances because it would propagate opportunities for prosperity.

Most people in business appreciate the value of confidence and contentment in their workers and customers. But, as business has been displaced so widely by government in the past year, apparently the government officials now making business their business have not picked up this bit of understanding.

In short, why would anyone with responsibility for economic progress not encourage more such forward-thinking, but rather allow their representatives, in this case the U.S. EPA, to threaten to impose suffocating carbon restrictions on the economy — manufacturers, distributors, and consumers, alike? Don’t they realize how that would not only snuff out confidence, but actual economic growth?

It almost makes one wonder if they want an economic recovery, or a continuation of the past year’s anxiety.