Money Links: CEO confidence rises, but not hiring; stock market bulls in fast retreat; can a value-added tax save us?

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--- CEO confidence climbs to a four-year high: So says a survey of Business Council leaders. But most don’t see much hope for a big drop in unemployment, because they themselves aren’t planning to do a lot of hiring. Meanwhile, big companies continue to pile up cash on their balance sheets.

--- Where have all the stock market bulls gone? Bullish sentiment among investment newsletter writers has quickly fallen to the lowest level since last March. All it took was four straight down weeks on Wall Street. And yet, the market’s recent pullback still hasn’t crossed the 10% ‘correction’ threshold.

--- New Jersey’s governor declares “fiscal emergency.” Believe it or not, the Garden State’s budget mess is worse than California’s -- per capita, anyway.

--- Is a value-added tax the best way to restore U.S. budgetary sanity? ‘It’s the only vehicle capable of raising the money to cover the gigantic projected increases in spending and deficits,’ writes Shawn Tully at Fortune.

-- Tom Petruno