Evidence since the 2022–2023 tightening strongly supports Sacks’s prediction of a large subsequent wave of company failures and bankruptcies.

• Sharp monetary tightening and liquidity withdrawal. Between March 2022 and July 2023 the Fed raised the federal funds rate from near 0% to 5.25–5.50%, the fastest and largest hiking cycle in decades, after years of near‑zero rates and quantitative easing.(forbes.com) This is the “money being sucked out of the system” backdrop Sacks was referring to.

• Corporate bankruptcies rose to post‑GFC highs.

  • In 2023, U.S. corporate bankruptcy filings (public + certain large private firms) jumped from the unusually low 2021–2022 levels and were already described as the highest since around 2010, driven largely by higher interest rates.(spglobal.com)
  • In 2024, filings reached 694–695, explicitly noted by S&P Global and other outlets as the highest annual total since 2010, with elevated interest rates and strained consumer finances cited as the main causes.(spglobal.com)
  • In 2025, the trend continued: by October there were already 655 filings, and S&P/Reuters reported that 2025 was on pace to hit the highest level of U.S. corporate bankruptcies in about 15 years.(investing.com)

• Startup and VC‑backed failures surged.

  • Carta data show startup shutdowns rose from 467 in 2022 to 770 in 2023, the highest number since Carta began tracking, with analysts calling 2023 “the most fatal year for startups,” driven by a hostile funding climate after the 2021–22 boom.(forbes.com)
  • By Q1 2024, 254 venture‑backed U.S. startups had already failed, a 58% year‑over‑year increase and the highest quarterly total of the decade; the rise is attributed to companies running out of cash as venture funding and venture debt tightened.(techmonitor.ai)
  • One 2025 review estimates 966 U.S. startups shut down in 2024, up ~26% from 769 in 2023, describing a continuing “wave of shutdowns” linked to overfunding in 2020–21 and subsequent funding scarcity.(founderstoday.news)

Across both large corporates and venture‑backed startups, failures and bankruptcies have climbed to their highest levels since the aftermath of the Great Recession, clearly above the calm period that preceded the 2022–2023 tightening. While not on the scale of 2008–2009, the data show a broad, multi‑year spike in distress that matches Sacks’s qualitative prediction of a big post‑tightening “tsunami” of failures within the 1–3 year window he suggested.