Implode-o-Meter News - Corporate America's Epic Debt Binge Leaves $119 Billion Hangover

Companies have loaded up on debt. They owe more in interest than they ever have, while their ability to service what they owe, a metric called interest coverage, is at its lowest since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Â
The deterioration of balance-sheet health is "increasingly alarming" and will only worsen if earnings growth continues to stall amid a global economic slowdown,Â according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc... As of the second quarter, high-grade companies tracked by JPMorgan incurred $119 billion in interest expenses over the last year, the most for data going back to 2000... [yet they have] kept their cash-payout ratio -- how much money they give to shareholders relative to Ebitda -- steady at a 15-year high....

So basically corporate America paid out to shareholders at the expense of workers and their own future solvency. Nice. Does anyone in corporate or financial America care about anything beyond the current quarter, anymore?

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Corporate America's Epic Debt Binge Leaves $119 Billion Hangover