The Economist says
Few people would have predicted this litany of disasters when Mr Bush ran for the presidency in 2000.
It means "We did not predict, and few people in our circle would…"
Few people would have predicted…
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Hah, they don’t get any better, do they?
Back in ’95, in the days when the web was new, I was running an e-commerce exploration project in Labs and amongst the visitors one time was an Economist technology hack. At the end of the visit, I asked him whether the mag was thinking about getting a web site. He responded, “Nah, we reckon the world-wide web is just a flash in the pan.”
The other version of that is “If we’d known then what we know now…”, which often translates as “If I’d known then what you were trying to tell me then…” (borrowed from Bruschettaboy).