Business Roundtable released the 3Q CEO Economic Outlook Survey Wednesday, and the results were not encouraging, showing a sharp downturn in CEOs’ expectations for sales, capital spending and hiring over the next six months ..

Andrew Liveris, chairman, president and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, added context to the results in a CNBC interview last night with Larry Kudlow. Liveris, a BRT vice chairman, said:

We've had three major political uncertainties -- not additives, but, in fact, multiplying each other and a fourth looming.

The debt ceiling debate last year sent us into a spiral. The discussion out of Europe and the lack of a solution on the sovereign debt issue amplified the spiral. The Chinese handover, which is not going well, is causing an economic slowdown, almost free-fall over there. Those three things are amplifying economic events, causing business to not invest. and therefore in the United States, this looming fiscal cliff is the fourth data point that's a multiplier.

You put all that together, that is a failure of politics. In essence, you know, whichever President it is, whichever Congress it is, they're not working out solutions.

The interview is also notable because Kudlow and Liveris discuss the effect of Mideast unrest and potential escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict on the U.S. economy. Liveris:  "Geopolitical tension of this type is acute and therefore it would cause a retrenchment because it amplifies uncertainty."

Business Roundtable President John Engler appeared earlier on CNBC Wednesday, as well, to discuss the survey results. The video is here.

News coverage ...

• Los Angeles Times, "CEOs more pessimistic on sales and hiring, Business Roundtable says"
• BizJournals.com, "Business Roundtable CEOs lower economic outlook"
• Associated Press, "Fewer US CEOs planning to expand, hire"
• Reuters, "Analysis: Corporate America sweats as U.S. nears fiscal cliff
• MarketWatch, "Fiscal cliff breeds C-suite worries"
• Wall Street Journal (blog), "CEOs turn less optimistic as fiscal cliff nears"
• Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, "U.S. CEOs cutting sales, hiring expectations"