Looking out the next six months, almost 40 percent of California's mergers and acquisition crowd (investment bankers, private equity folks, lawyers, accountants and consultants) expect the buyout environment to be even worse than it is now. That's according to a Thomson Reuters survey conducted for the Association for Corporate Growth - and they're among the bleakest results the association has ever recorded. But 33 percent say it will be better in six months. (Where they're getting the information to make an informed prognosis is anybody's guess.) Biggest obstacles are the credit crunch and the unwillingness of sellers to settle for low multiples.