PORTLAND, Maine — Where is the economy headed in these unsettled and unsettling times? No one knows. Sure, there are plenty of people, many of them handsomely paid, who offer predictions about everything from unemployment to interest rates to a recovery. They may dress sharply, sound intelligent and speak with reassuring confidence, but in the end their pronouncements aren’t even close to being a sure guide to the future. Warren Buffett put it this way: “We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good.”
When we talked this week with Dana Connors, the president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, it wasn’t to get his view of what’s going to happen to the Maine economy, but to find out what he’s hearing from businesspeople across the state. Clearly one of their main concerns is how soon financial aid from the government will start flowing. For business owners who have to pay rent, insurance and utilities when there’s no money coming in, that aid is a lifeline. If it doesn’t arrive quickly, a lot of businesses will sink.
What else is on the minds of Maine’s businesspeople? Watch our conversation with Connors to find out.
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