Monday, September 2, 2013

The Sure Wild Thing!


Click to enlarge.



Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

5 comments:

Stagflationary Mark said...

Thank goodness nonfinancial corporations still embrace debt! Think where we'd be without them!

Currently growing at a sustainable 9% per year! Woohoo!

Too much sarcasm?

Mr Slippery said...

It looks like corporate debt jumped back on the exponential trend line. I wonder if it will stop before it hits infinity?

Stagflationary Mark said...

Mr Slippery,

Yes! Infinity! I don't think corporations, as people, really care how much debt they rack up. It's the corporation that owes the money, not the CEO! Put another way, if a given corporation feels the need to borrow money to adequately compensate the top executives then who exactly is harmed? Win win for everyone! Yay!

I also read somewhere that the subprime debt problems of people are contained. I'm sure that applies to corporations, as people, too!

So what if some companies sit on piles of cash while others struggle! What's the worst that could happen?

Oh oh. The sarcasm spigot is wide open again. Sorry about that!

In all seriousness, when it comes to long-term debt more than 10% of the companies in the S&P 500 aren't even investment grade and at least another 40% are ranked BBB+ or lower (not that I pay much heed to the ratings agencies to determine risk!). I say at least 40% because 13% don't even have ratings.

honestcreditguy said...

I had a little crush on that filipina girl in the video, they were all going to USC..

Why not just take on more liabilities, it's a sure thing..or is it?

Stagflationary Mark said...

honestcreditguy,

Why not just take on more liabilities, it's a sure thing..or is it?

Perhaps the solution is to give struggling corporations their own individual monetary printing presses. That way they can pay off their debts easily if they become unmanageable.

Barring that, I'm going to go with *not* a sure thing. ;)