This is great advice... if you have a fair idea of how long the bad times will last.
Even if not knowing, preparing means not having to spend as much, or maybe not going into debt. Anything to be a little bit ahead, means recovery is faster, right? Like you said, times can be bad way longer, while everyone is starting into the good.
They definitely shorted the market.
I can't imagine Finland is too reliant on the US for much.
Not really, but Finland does export to the US some stuff. There is little Finland needs though, that it can't get elsewhere.
Yeah, this is why the real big companies keep a lot of cash on hand (often in the billions) to help weather storms, but also take advantage of the bad times (buying other companies cheaply, getting great talent, renegotiate real estate or licensing deals, etc). The big Fortune 100 companies often have $5B just sitting in bank accounts.