Global business executives love Barack Obama?

Mitt Romney is a great businessman, right?

He loves free markets and hates regulation.

He also despises taxes.

He's got global experience, too, after leading the 2002 Winter Olympics to a successful outcome in Salt Lake City.

Oh, and he's rich.

So you might expect most business executives around the world would be in favor of a Romney presidency, particularly after the economic challenges Barack Obama has faced since moving into the White House in 2009.

But you'd be wrong.

That's the word today, anyway, from a survey conducted by the Financial Times and The Economist that asked 1,740 business leaders in a variety of industries about their 2012 presidential preferences.

Twice as many said an Obama victory would be better for the global economy.

Thirty-seven percent, meanwhile, thought it would make no difference who won the election.

Here's how the FT put it:

(The survey's) results run counter to general perceptions, at least in the US, where Mr Romney has gone out of his way to stress his support for business and his determination to reduce regulation.

The FT/Economist Global Business Barometer also pointed to general glumness about the immediate economic future.

Thirty percent of those polled thought "business conditions in their industries would deteriorate," the Financial Times says.

Two in ten think (hope?) conditions will improve.

On to November, people.