The economy is in turmoil.

“Global banks are staring at the biggest crisis since 2008,” reported Reuters. Thus far in 2023, two U.S. banks have collapsed, leaving Americans uneasy about their financial futures. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was the first to go. After a run allegedly drove the bank to insolvency, it was forced to file for bankruptcy on March 10. Two days later, Signature Bank also closed. According to Bankrate, “Signature Bank was shut down after its customers withdrew billions of dollars in the wake of the collapse of SVB.”

Of course, the crisis was also spurred on by record-high inflation (which climbed to 9.1 percent year over year last summer). As prices soared, an estimated 72 percent of Americans cut back on spending. This, in turn, impacted businesses still recuperating post-COVID and even those left relatively unscathed by the pandemic.

In recent months, Amazon and Meta have laid off 27,000 and 21,000 employees respectively. Last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced 7,000 company layoffs. Then, this week, reports broke that McDonald’s is also laying off employees. Even the company’s vice president announced that, after 20 years with the company, he was informed on Monday his position was being abruptly eliminated.

To the average American, these signs spell bad news for the economy. Many experts concur. Whether we’re on track for recession or simply a prolonged season of tightened belts, America is financially volatile.

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The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, warned in his annual letter to shareholders that the effects of the banking crisis may be felt for years. In his over 165,000-word letter, only one sentence is being talked about: “Even when [the banking crisis] is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come.”

Despite recognizing these problems, however, Dimon, like so many others, has fallen into the trap of the left. In the same letter he warned about the long-term impacts of economic fallout, he also virtue-signaled his fidelity to the religion of woke, committing a staggering $30 billion to “racial equity.”

When will the business world learn that, especially in times of economic downturn, Americans are not interested in their woke rituals? In fact, virtue signaling may be contributing to the downturn. Disney stock, for example, plunged 45% last year. Overall, the company suffered “its worst annual performance in nearly five decades.” Yet at least two of its kids’ movies featured LGBTQ storylines and were “shocking box office failure[s].” As much as Disney wants to deny any correlation between the movies’ woke controversies and abysmal performances, they certainly did not help.

To blame all of our financial woes on “wokeism” would be an oversimplification. But America is staggeringly dangerously close to recession. As we are forced to cut costs, the first expense to go, no doubt, should be our extortionate offerings to the woke god.