National Federation Of Independent Business

Optimism among small-business owners dropped last month to a 17-year low as companies said they expected business conditions to worsen in the next six months. The National Federation of Independent Business confidence index fell 2.8 percentage points to 91.8, according to the Washington-based group. Eight of the 10 components making up the measure fell. "The index delivered a recession signal, but it takes more than a quarter to validate," the group said.

The leading small-business organization, a lobbying juggernaut that helped kill President Clinton's health plan in the 1990s, plans to announce today that it is signing up with a diverse political coalition promoting access to affordable healthcare for all. The National Federation of Independent Business will join AARP, the Service Employees International Union and the Business Roundtable -- which represents chief executives of major companies -- in an umbrella group called Divided We Fail.

With election day fast approaching Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business--never at a loss to toot small business' horn along with its own--issued a press release proclaiming that small-business owners are "poised to emerge as a make-or-break voting bloc" this year. It based its claim on an Oct. 1-9 phone survey of 1,000 of the 600,000 NFIB members nationwide.