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Updated: September 16, 2024

A Look Back: In early 2020, oddly accurate pre-pandemic predictions

By Peter Van Allen

In the past year, we’ve been using the 30th anniversary of Mainebiz to look at topics that came up in past issues.

Now, as our anniversary year winds down, we’re taking a look at more recent events.

The past five years have been marked by the pandemic. Even at the beginning of 2020, it’s interesting how many concerns only became larger issues when the pandemic took aim at Maine.

From the Mainebiz “economic outlook” issue of Jan. 13, 2020, we outlined “5 warning signs for the economy.” They were:

  • Worker shortages are affecting every industry.
  • Rising construction costs could sabotage certain projects.
  • Health care costs continue to eat at the bottom line.
  • Rising consumer debt could affect big-purchase spending.
  • The 2020 elections at all levels will be hotly contested.

All of those concerns did in fact become even more major issues with the pandemic — more so than we ever could have predicted in early 2020.

That’s not to say, “We told you so.” I think the expression, “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while,” might be more appropriate, given what was still to come.

Fun fact

 

On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, two days before the pandemic health crisis effectively locked down travel and in-person business activities, Mainebiz toured office space in Portland for a potential move. Our publisher at the time, Donna Brassard, told the real estate broker we wanted to think about it over the weekend.

Two days later, everything changed, and workers were being sent home for an extended period of remote work. We ended up giving up our old office space, working from home. Two years later, the same office space was still available and we signed the lease.

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