[ruh-roh]

My father has given me a version of the same advice in strange, disruptive, crazy economic times over the years: "At a certain level, the economy is just a collective state of mind. You can contribute to it, be a slave to it, or take advantage of it."

Look - I have small kids too, so I'm not advocating that you ignore it. Everyone with dependents should be proactive in considering how they are supported (in "good" economic times too). There are just so many interconnected pieces of a global economy that a wide brush of doom is far from inevitable.

The first question I would consider: What is the funding source of the company that I work for? Are we public and thus directly dependent on market swings? Or are we VC or private-backed, which is indirectly affected but could also weather the storm if forward-thinking? Or are we private + bootstrapped, which is generally a good thing until your customers start fearing the doom-and-gloom economy too.