[pedasmith]

The VCs that were funding the startup I worked for got spooked and demanded an immediate reduction in force; I was one of the programmers that got hit.

The market the company was in didn't shrink, and they kept on making money, so the VCs were definitely not the all-seeing oracles that day :-)

Personally: the Seattle-area housing market shrank (and has since recovered), which didn't affect me because I already had a house. And I found a new job pretty quick.