Update: The Nation, in Nearly Every Aspect, Is Failing Such Is the Fate of Nations Who Adopt Spineless Money, We’re Headed for Complete Financial, Moral, and Political Collapse, From Then on The Plandemic Will Be Accomplished

At an investor conference on Wednesday, Dimon said, “That hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way.” The chief executive added, “We don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy. You better brace yourself.”

Dimon alluded to Hurricane Sandy, a storm National Geographic referred to as a “raging freak of nature.” The hurricane took a big toll, creating destruction, knocking out power for many families and closing down businesses for an extended period of time, spanning the Caribbean to the United States East Coast.

This isn’t what you want to hear from an experienced, sober, serious-minded executive who has seen his fair share of booms and busts over the many decades working in banking and finance. The causes of concern include the Federal Reserve Bank and the government discontinuing their financial stimulus programs started during the pandemic to keep the economy afloat. Instead, the Fed will enact a quantitative tightening program.

This new policy is the nearly direct opposite of what the bank did during the pandemic. Now, Americans will see a contractionary monetary policy that will decrease the amount of liquidity within the economy. The policy is the reverse of quantitative easing, which aimed to increase money supply, in order to stimulate the economy.

Additionally, Dimon has some concerns over the possible escalation of war emanating from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rapidly rising inflation and the related increase in costs, along with other uncertainties.

For the last couple of years, it was all about exuberance. Money flowed freely with interest rates held artificially low. As a consequence, the U.S. saw real estate, the stock market and cryptocurrency prices skyrocket higher.

Venture Capitalists Went From Bragging To Cutting Costs

Dimon is not a lone voice. The mood is shifting and several prominent venture capitalists, who up until recently bragged about all of the billions they were investing in startups, are now telling their portfolio companies to ensure they have sufficient cash for a rainy day. The message is clear: cut costs and buckle up, as Americans may be in for a wild ride, signaling an end to the booming era. With a new anti-profligating mindset, you are likely to see more tech companies laying off workers and enacting hiring freezes.

Venture funding in the second quarter of 2022 is anticipated to plunge by almost 20%, according to CBInsights. The lofty valuations of startups, including a large number of multibillion-dollar unicorns, will likely see large write-downs in their private market capitalizations.

Sequoia Capital, the venerable venture capital firm that invested in early phenomenal success stories, such as Apple, Uber, Google and other top companies, warned around 250 founders of their portfolio companies of a potential “crucible moment” of uncertainty due to runaway inflation, the shakey markets and nerve-wracking geopolitical events, reported The Information.

The well-regarded startup accelerator Y Combinator, which backed huge winners, such as Dropbox, Coinbase, Airbnb and Reddit, suggested to startup founders that they should start thinking about cutting cuts and tightening their belts with respect to expenses. “It’s your responsibility to ensure your company will survive if you cannot raise money for the next 24 months.” TechCrunch reported on the letter sent to Y Combinator’s portfolio founders, stating, “No one can predict how bad the economy will get, but things don’t look good. The safe move is to plan for the worst.”

Layoffs And Downsizings

If you check out LinkedIn, you’ll see a steady flow of members placing the “open to work” banner on their profiles and asking for help to find a new job after being laid off. An increasing number of tech companies have enacted hiring freezes and layoffs. Previously, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, told his team via email that he is tapping the brakes on adding a new headcount at the ridesharing app company. He perceived bringing aboard new people would be considered “a privilege,” in light of the “seismic shift” in the economy and tech sector.

Meta stated that it would reduce hiring for mid-level and senior roles at the social media company. Mortgage startup Better.com, best known for the CEO who fired people via a oneway Zoom video and called employees “dumb dolphins,” laid off approximately 4,000 people.

Robinhood, the trading app that gained notoriety and popularity during the pandemic, as young novice investors stuck at home started aggressively trading meme stocks and cryptocurrencies, announced it will let go of around 9% of its workforce. The company dramatically increased headcount from about 700 employees in 2019 to nearly 4,000 by 2021. CEO Vlad Tenev wrote about the layoffs, “While the decision to undertake this action wasn’t easy, it is a deliberate step to ensure we are able to continue delivering on our strategic goals and furthering our mission to democratize finance.”

Netflix provided pink slips on April 28 to the team at its Tudum fan-focused site. Netflix, another beneficiary of the stay-at-home era, lost $54.4 billion in market capitalization overnight, representing the “largest, single-day decline in its history.”

Klarna, a Sweden-based fintech company in the buy-now-pay-later space, announced plans to lay off about 10% of its global workforce, in a pre-recorded video message. High-flying Bolt, an online payments unicorn startup, announced that over one-third of the company is being downsized, as the tech bubble is bursting.

A Little Sunshine In The Storm

There are some positives. Top-tier venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz raised $4.5 billion for its record-breaking crypto fund, which indicates optimism over the future of the crypto market.

Guy Berger, a principal economist at LinkedIn, tweeted in a thread, “May’s @LinkedIn Hiring Rate data was quite different from what I anticipated. Despite all those glum headlines, overall U.S. hiring was up 0.4% [month-over-month]. It’s up 10% relative to pre-COVID; has changed much since late spring 2021. Hot, but not heating up further nor cooling down.”

Berger said in his tweets, “Even more surprising, tech hiring was up 2.1% [month-over-month] in May. There’s no sign, yet, of hiring freezes or layoffs affecting this data. Tech hiring stopped *rising* around year-end-2021 (inflection point), but no further more recent change.”

He added, “It is reasonable to expect things to cool off at least a little going forward on the hiring front. But it’s not happening yet. Slicing the data by metro, the strongest hiring was in Houston—hiring was up 25.8% relative to pre-COVID. Houston, along with five other metros, saw its strongest hiring since the beginning of the pandemic.”

In another piece of positive news, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that there were 1.2 million layoffs in April, a record low. The number of open job listings hit 11.4 million at the end of April, a decrease from the record 11.9 million openings in March, but still near all-time highs. Additionally, there was a 6% increase in wage growth for April compared to last year at this time. It's one of the biggest annual increases in more than two decades, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

What You Should Do Now

If Dimon and top money managers are a little worried, it makes sense that you heed their advice. Even if they end up being wrong, the economy stays strong, the U.S. does not get involved in an international war and China relaxes its stringent Covid-19 lockdowns, which will free up the supply and potentially bring down inflation, it makes sense to be prudent—just in case.

Make sure that you are in a safe job. Talk with your supervisor to learn what is happening at the company and whether or not you should be concerned. If there is some doubt about your future within the organization, start a job search right away. Get in touch with your network and recruiters, letting them know that you’re actively looking and need some leads, guidance and advice.

If you are a remote or hybrid worker, get back to the office. You may not want the commute, but there is something called a “proximity bias.” If your boss and upper-echelon executives always see you around and working hard, they’re more likely to retain you, compared to a co-worker who is only a small head in a video box that management sees maybe once in a while.

You may have scoffed at Gen-Zers who are taking on side hustles or making videos on TikTok. They are onto something. In the challenging times that people find themselves in, it’s a smart decision to diversify your sources of income. If you solely rely upon a salary and it's gone when you're terminated, there’s a lot of fear. Interviewing when scared is not a good look and you’ll come across as needy and desperate.

Instead, find other means to earn extra cash to get through the lean times. Look for opportunities in the gig economy, take on projects from other businesses and search job sites that offer short-term assignments. Similar to the advice that the venture capitalist offered to their portfolio companies, cut expenses, don’t make large expenditures and pay off your credit cards and other loans that carry high-interest rates.

Keep things in perspective. The U.S. enjoyed a sugar-rush high over the last few years, with record gains in the stock and crypto markets, as well as real estate. With the reopening of the economy, there was an oversized demand for workers and jobs were in abundance. With capitalism, you see cycles come and go. Now, America is coming down from its sugar high. It's time to batten down the hatches and gear up for treacherous waters. Eventually, time will pass. If history is the judge, the pendulum will swing toward growth. The U.S. will then happily see economic growth and better times. After about another five or 10 years, the pendulum will shift back to cutting costs.

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