> But I think the approach of "cut x% over and over" to keep the stock afloat at some point is not going to work forever, since a company is not very competitive at 0% of its original engineering / get things done work force.

Let me ask you this.

If we can correlate (which I think we can) "a tech company should have X headcount when the Federal Funds Rate is 0.25%" and "a tech company should have Y headcount when the Federal Funds Rate is 5.25%, where X is less than Y", I'm going to guess most tech companies just play it by ear/quarter by quarter (like the rest of the economic/financial markets based on all sorts of reports/data that come out incrementally over the year)

Right now, maybe companies haven't done enough layoffs to get their headcount to where it needs to be if the Federal Funds Rate is the full blown "doomsday" terminal 5.25%. Maybe companies are doing it incrementally and waiting to see if the Fed will pivot, because they have to keep in mind how expensive re-hiring people to chase growth will be?