In other words to see if he was correct. Someone help me out here... lol
I think we are hung up on the legal definition vs the colloquial definition.
'by" can mean one of the following:
1: in proximity to : near <standing by the window>
2a : through or through the medium of : via <enter by the door>
2b : in the direction of : toward <north by east>
2c : into the vicinity of and beyond : past <went right by him>
3a : during the course of <studied by night>
3b : not later than <by 2 p.m.>
4a : through the agency or instrumentality of <by force>
4b : born or begot of
4c : sired or borne by
5: with the witness or sanction of <swear by all that is holy>
6a : in conformity with <acted by the rules>
6b : according to <called her by name>
7a : on behalf of <did right by his children>
7b : with respect to <a lawyer by profession>
8a : in or to the amount or extent of <win by a nose>
8b chiefly Scottish : in comparison with : beside
I think this usage would be definition 3b or possibly 3a.
So read his statement like this "I predict difficulty will be over 100 million during the course of summer 2013"
or like this "I predict difficulty will be over 100 million not later than summer 2013".
To me that seems like summer counts. /shrug