The interesting thing about the United States’ system of capitalism is that it’s quite decentralized: the Fed only controls indirect levers of power like the base interest rate and other, private institutions use these simple signals as barometers for their collective action. When the Fed began raising rates last year, everyone downstream began tightening the screws on their investments, and so on. When interest rates rise, private equity and venture capitalists know that their capital pool will dry up and so they direct their portfolio companies to cut headcount, who then cut their suppliers and so on.