Does anyone else feel like we are about to experience a catastrophic change in finance?

I recognize that my perspective is heavily influenced by the information and content that I expose myself to. I’m a novice to finance and stocks and I know I am in fact naive. I began investing and trading in late 2020, so up until now I’ve experienced relentless optimism in the market, and in my portfolio.

I know at this point we are all well aware of the 40 year high inflation and the gigantic bubble that is the US (and perhaps global) economy. We are all coming to terms with the fact that the face melting bull run of the last two years is coming to an end, and likely sooner than later.

Now setting that aside, is anyone else getting the sense that finance as we know it, might be coming to an end? Monetary policy for the past 14 years following 2008 (plus a lot of other things) seems to have brought us right to the brink of economic collapse. The Fed is no longer being proactive about mitigating inflation, but instead trying to react to it.

I think concern over the fact that the Fed seems to have totally lost control is warranted. To be candid, I personally don’t think this situation we’re in was an “oops” and it’s hard to imagine that this is all not by design in some way.

I’m not at all a sucker for the narrative being created by the financial news shows, and for the most part I do not tune into them at all. I understand their spin weighs heavy on the underlying emotions in the stock market. That being said, this is the first time in my investing journey that the information I’m consuming is overwhelmingly bearish. Not just bearish though, but quite frankly alarmist.

The economic situation we are in currently is probably something to be alarmed over, in my opinion. I think at best we will experience a proper market crash followed by a recession, triggered by the conclusion of QE and rising interest rates, which when combined with all of the other economic struggles the US is facing, won’t look pretty. At worst, we could be launched into economic turmoil so unprecedented, that we will never return to business as usual – and what I mean by that, I don’t really know.

I don’t have a plan for what’s to come. I have no hedges against a falling market. I honestly have no clue what I’m talking about or what’s going to come next. This is essentially just an assortment of my thoughts and feelings assembled into a rambling monologue.

Please don’t take anything I’ve said too seriously. I just thought I’d share my thoughts here and see what others have to say. Have I just gotten sucked into the emotional market narrative? Or is it likely that what’s to come is going to be very bad?