When the pandemic shut down the world in 2020, operations managers at companies concluded: We need to do whatever we can to survive.

Automakers saw it as a severe recession and cut back production and orders for new supplies, while car rental companies sold their fleets. Airlines canceled orders for new jets. Energy companies canceled drilling projects. Companies in a range of industries laid off workers.

We’re still dealing with the effects of those decisions. This turned out to be a much shorter economic downturn, with a much speedier recovery, than many people were forecasting in the spring of 2020. So now, automakers are wishing they hadn’t canceled orders for semiconductors, car rental companies are struggling to add vehicles, shipping prices are through the roof, fuel prices are spiking, and companies are wrestling with labor shortages.

What seemed like prudent, sensible decisions turned out to be wrong for the actual economy we ended up with.