This column comes straight from the past — about two weeks ago, if you hold this magazine in the first days of April after it publishes. As I write this, I shrug to think about what two weeks from now might look like. Who knows?
The likely outlook as you read this: We all feel stir crazy after two weeks at home. A recession may start showing in the numbers (like new claims for unemployment) as people try to get a handle on the economic impact of COVID-19. We may know by now if schools will remain closed through the end of the school year, and whether other cancellations like trade shows will continue past the end of the second quarter. We could have a sense of whether all this isolation has “flattened the curve” enough.