Far too many American business executives are using the state of the economy as an excuse for doing nothing to get us out of this recession.  They’re sitting back and waiting for something to happen rather than taking the initiative to make something happen—they’re waiting for the economy to get better, for economic stimulus money to be doled out, for credit to loosen up and for the federal government to do something. While they’re waiting, they’re hunkering down, tightening their belts, laying people off and looking for additional ways to cut costs.  These are the very actions that will prolong the current recession rather than shortening it.  There’s something grossly wrong with this picture.  This is not the business mindset that has made America the great country that it is.  Now is the time when they should be demonstrating their leadership by putting American businesses on the fast track out of this recession.  They can do this by focusing their attention on the one resource available to their businesses whose behavior they can influence—their employees—the people who do the work that their companies get paid for.  The better these people are treated, the harder they’ll work and the harder they work, the quicker the company’s revenue stream begins to grow and that’s what the fast track out of this recession is all about.  What’s there not to get here?