New Fed, FDIC Report Send Flashing Red Lights on U.S. Corporate Debt

Feb. 26 , 2021 (EIRNS)—The report issued Feb. 25 by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency amounts to flashing red lights on the condition of U.S. corporate debt, ready for a blow-out. In short, the rate of “non-pass” loans, which are those regarded as loans unlikely to be repaid, nearly doubled from an already worrisome level of 6.9% in 2019, to 12.4% in 2020. Most of these non-pass loans are held by non-banks, according to financial media.

However, in the group of sectors hit hard by the pandemic—transportation, travel, retail, entertainment, and so on, including oil and gas—the volume of non-pass loans jumped up from a shaky 13.5% in 2019 to 29.2% in 2020.

Granted, 2020 is the pandemic year, and trouble is to be expected. But the persistent non-action towards preserving and expanding productive activity, and instead bailing out the top banksters and spreading around some confetti “stimulus” checks to the hoi polloi, will guarantee financial meltdown, chaos and suffering.