In spite of all the economic uncertainty, leaders of America's top companies expect modest improvement in the nation's economy over the next six months, according to the Business Roundtable's fourth quarter 2007 CEO Economic Outlook Survey, released in early December. Harold McGraw, chairman of The Business Roundtable and chairman and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies, says CEOs "still see the economy as steady" and "expect their sales, capital spending, and employment levels to either increase or remain steady in the first half of 2008." Many (32 percent) of the CEOs cited energy and healthcare costs as the greatest - and equal - fiscal pressures for their firms. Others cited material costs (17 percent), litigation costs (10 percent), and labor costs (5 percent).