After years of cheap money helped fuel the rise of speculative investing and profitless business models in the U.S. over the past decade, stubborn inflation has forced the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates faster than ever before in 2022. Now, a new era of higher borrowing costs and more cautious lenders—coupled with slowing growth and recession fears—has frozen once-red hot segments of the U.S. economy.
The initial public offering (IPO) market is essentially shut; tech companies are laying off workers and pausing hiring; the housing market is experiencing a “reset” after years of booming growth; and the venture capital (VC) space has slowed dramatically, with private market valuations tumbling.
But despite the freeze in key sectors—and consistent doomsday predictions from Wall Street—the economy as a whole has continued to grow alongside the resilient labor market. In the fourth quarter of last year, U.S….
