The End of Easy Money: Bankruptcy Filings Pile Up at Fastest Rate Since 2010

by Wolf Richter Wolf Street

A cleansing process, long overdue, to whittle down the corporate debt overhang and clear out deadwood, at the expense of investors.

It’s turning into a banner year for corporate bankruptcy filings, after years of Easy Money that caused all kinds of excesses, fueled by yield-chasing investors, in an environment where the Fed had repressed yields with all its might. Those yield-chasing investors kept even the most over-indebted zombies supplied with ever-more fresh money. But that era has ended. Interest rates are much higher, and investors are getting a little more prudent, and Easy Money is gone.