The crisis is starting its own competitive selection among US companies, and it is a very painful process for investors and employees, but we are only at the beginning, as Wolfstreet notes. 2023 is becoming a party of corporate failures, after years of easy money that it has caused all kinds of excesses, fueled by investors chasing yields, in an environment where the Fed has been cracking down on yields with all its might.

These yield-seeking investors ensured that even the most indebted zombies were supplied with more and more fresh money, but that era is over. Interest rates are much higher, investors are getting a little more cautious, and the easy money is gone.