Merchants of Debt
The companies are spreading pain to investors, who have suffered losses.
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Big problems get a whole lot bigger when big debt is involved.
The prime example is energy companies, many of which borrowed record amounts of cash during the recent commodity boom only to run into trouble as soon as oil prices headed south. But another important one can be found in overly leveraged U.S. retailers, which are struggling in the face of a structural shift in consumers’ spending habits.