The economists have spoken; it’s looking like a rough year ahead, with the economic climate getting worse before it gets better. Business owners and executives can hope the analysts are wrong, but they better not be betting on it.

Bob Adolfson says he’ll always remember a party he catered in the early 1990s in Seattle. It was an end-of-the-year bash for a company with 12,000 employees held at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.