> To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making absolutely certain predictions about economic headwinds i

> To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making absolutely certain predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022. This has to have had a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy effect. When you start predicting 'downturn' and your solution is "lay people off", then yes... economic activity will slow (from your former staff) and... that spreads around. It can't not be having some impact, and as more and more places do it, it compounds.