There’s an old joke about a person paying last respects to an atheist friend. Looking into the casket, the friend lamented, “All dressed up, nowhere to go.”

Thinking about the U.S. economy makes that joke come to mind. Almost a decade since getting really sick, but not dying, America’s businesses – especially the small ones – spent the last nine years all dressed up, nowhere to go.

Since the 2008 financial crisis and associated Great Recession, which actually began Q4 2007 (a year before Bara...