What happened this week?

I ate lunch on Monday with three of my good friends.  They are excellent, high quality developers.  Not only would I trust them with my life, I would trust that what they said about code was 100% true.  Two of them said that when their company is sold this summer that they will most likely be out of work.  On Tuesday, thanks to my sickness(es) over the last several months, we lost additional work from a customer.  I also got an email saying that another customer said that they decided to shelve a project I was working on for them.  On Wednesday, I got a call from a friend of mine that he lost his job just and hour or two before.  What happened that I missed in the news?  Is this "Get rid of good developers week?"  Or maybe I am finally seeing the signs that the work situation is pretty bad right now all over?

Wally