My brother had a successful ‘small business’ (85 employees at it’s zenith) for 20+ years and it’s getting smaller (now under 20). The only recent hires, this past fall, were two part-time workers for an essential full-time job. He’s up at 3 in the morning, can’t sleep, because he has to go through firing some more people after Jan. 1. It’s rapidly coming down to the way the business began - my brother & his partner doing all the work themselves ... assuming there is work because right now, NO work is coming in. They both are personally guaranteed on some projects so bankruptcy is in the future. He told me last year if Obama was re-elected, that would be the end of his business and it looks like that will be the case. Interestingly, he’s one of the last standing in our area because he took action to downsize long before a lot of his competitors. Many of his employees are ‘long-timers’ .... very sad, but he’s not in business to keep people employed - he’s in business to make a living for himself and his family and he’s not sacrificing their welfare to keep other people in jobs. This is being played out all over the country - IMO, there is no way to avoid a “crash”, whether we go over the so-called cliff or not. Obama and the government idiots (including Congress) can lie all they want about the economy holding its own or getting better, but the reality on the ground is not what they’re trying to sell us.
Your post is showing what is really going to happen. The MSM is NOT reporting this.