'It's mathematics. The outcome is inevitable.'
Every domino is already in position, every fuse has been lit, and when
the first one falls, the cascade will be unstoppable. Right now, as
you're reading this, over $500 billion in corporate debt is racing
toward a refinancing deadline.
Companies that borrowed money at 3% interest rates during the pandemic boom are about to face 9% rates when those loans come due. Banks that seemed rock solid are sitting on portfolios of commercial real estate loans that are worth half what they were two years ago, and the very institutions that were supposed to catch the falling pieces, private credit funds and leveraged loan markets, are quietly pulling back just when the system needs them most. This isn't another prediction about some distant economic downturn.



