Editorial Board
Stop Subsidizing Debt
It leads to crises, so why encourage it?
Overlevered?
Photographer: Reg Speller/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Of all the much-debated causes of the 2008 financial crisis, there’s one on which almost everyone agrees: U.S. homeowners took on debts that would have been affordable only in an improbably benign world. Ten years later, according to a recent report by Bloomberg News, many of the largest U.S. corporations are getting into a similar predicament.
It’s too early to say whether the rising indebtedness will lead to another financial disaster. But one thing is certain: There’s no good reason for the government to encourage it.