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The economic confidence of American small business owners remains largely unchanged in October, rising less than 1 point from the previous month on the Discover® Small Business WatchSM index. The Watch rose from 87.7 in September to 88.5 in October, with only one key measurement – business investment – showing any significant change.

The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $600 billion and $850 billion annually, according to a white paper published by Thomson Reuters.

The nation’s unemployment rate may have hit a 26-year high in September but many small business owners are getting ready to hire.

US home prices are expected to trough in the next 12 months while default rates on underlying loans in UK RMBS will continue to rise, reaching a projected peak in 12 to 18 months time, according to a global survey of RMBS investors. The Valuation Inputs Consensus survey, which was conducted by Standard & Poor's Fixed Income Risk Management Services (FIRMS) division, tracked the valuation projections of 64 institutions active in the US and European structured finance markets. The survey has been underway since Q1 2009 in order to monitor investors' input assumptions for the valuation of these key securitization assets.

The European Commission has adopted additional legislative proposals to further strengthen financial supervision in Europe. Following the adoption of a legislative package to strengthen financial supervision in Europe on 23 September 2009, including the creation of a European System of Financial Supervisors with three new European Supervisory Authorities, the Commission proposes to make targeted changes to existing financial services legislation to ensure that the new Authorities can work effectively.

Amid rising public debt burdens that will force governments to improve efficiency, a new OECD study highlights best practices and identifies where and how national administrations can provide improved services at lower cost to the public.

After the continued drop in quarterly merchandise trade volumes of the Group of seven (G7) countries during the last quarter 2008 and first quarter 2009, the trend reversed with more stable growth volumes in the second quarter 2009. Year-on-year, though, trade volume growth levelled-off at two-digit levels less than in the second quarter 2008.

After falling over the summer then ticking upward in September, key tracking measures of public support for health care reform held steady in October with more Americans backing an overhaul of the U.S. health system than opposing it, according to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.

NexGen Advisors, a global business restructuring and transformation firm, collaborated with American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), a premier benchmarking organization, to launch the first-ever cross-industry Global Organization Efficiency Survey (GOES). The result of GOES is a comprehensive white paper that outlines key benchmarks for Organizational Efficiency.

In August 2009 compared with July 2009, the euro area (EA16) industrial new orders index rose by 2.0%. In July the index increased by 3.0%. In the EU271 new orders grew by 1.2% in August 2009, after an increase of 1.6% in July. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders rose by 2.4% in the euro area and by 2.0% in the EU27.