Economics
Corporate America's Debt Boom Looks Like a Bust for the Economy
- Leveraged loan market raising alarm among financial watchdogs
- Merger activity may reflect forecast for moderate growth
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Despite strong incentives in the Republican tax plan for American executives to expand, invest and ultimately boost the U.S. economy’s growth potential, a lot of the debt companies are issuing appears to be motivated by something else.
Non-financial corporate debt stands at 45.6 percent of gross domestic product, near the highest in post-war record keeping. Despite that, non-residential investment -- a broad category in the national accounts that includes everything from office buildings to software -- has only been bouncing around the 13 percent of GDP range since 2012.