Hence the need for an investigation. I don't think there is collusion, but I wouldn't be surprised.

My conspiracy (let me put the tinfoil hat on) is that corporates and mega rich people wanted the recession badly because they can benefit from it. But it didn't happen so they're doing the layoffs and increasing prices to manufacture the recession despite their all-time high profits.

Genuine question. How would the mega rich benefit more from the recession than from a stable or high growth environment?

Seems easier to capture a bigger piece of the pie when the pie is growing for everybody no and nobody complains?

Not to mention the social and political unrest which might be triggered by a recession. Recent and old history has shown times and times again that it is when people go hungry or desperate that they challenge the established social order.

Wages lag growth, have a high growth environment for a few years and then cut off the faucet once people start demanding higher wages.

It may not be a conspiracy but that is what's happening.

Two things contribute to why I think that:

History taught me that the rich benefit from piece and from unrest.

Knowing human greed and that it's always greener on the other side.

But as I said, it's just a conspiracy theory that the recession is being manufactured.