According to a WSJ article "CFOs in 2021 Will Keep an Eye on These 10 Things", U.S. corporations continue borrowing from capital markets this year. When Covid-19 lockdowns triggered a recession, they didn't pull back. They borrowed even more and soon paid even less. After a brief spike, interest rates on corporate debt plummeted to their lowest level on record, bringing a surge in new bonds. Nonfinancial companies issued $1.7 trillion of bonds in the U.S. last year, nearly $600 billion more than the previous high, according to Dealogic. By the end of March, their total debt stood at $11.2 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, about half the size of the U.S. economy. The question now is whether companies have merely delayed a reckoning.

So, what is a potentially negative consequence of the economy's longer-term, persistently low-interest-rate environment? Despite the elevated levels of debt held by corporates, why are some debt investors encouraged that companies did not use recently raised debt to undertake share buybacks or pay dividends to shareholders?

Article is available on the wall street journal website. Title: CFOs in 2021 Will Keep an Eye on These 10 Things