Maureen O'Connor
speaker
24 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2026
last heard 6 Jan
Maureen O'Connor’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 2.
Appearances
The last time that corporations piled on a lot of debt was in the wake of the pandemic.
Maureen O'Connor with Wells Fargo says that's because borrowing money was cheap back then.
And O'Connor says much of that debt is about to expire this year.
O'Connor says another reason companies are borrowing so much money is that many of them hope to purchase other firms this year, and companies often use debt to finance mergers and acquisitions.
Finally, there's all of the AI infrastructure tech firms are building around the country.
Guy Labat is with Jenny Montgomery Scott.
LaBasse says those capital expenditures pay contractors, suppliers, and other companies that have been issuing new debt of their own.
Companies also feel like they can issue bonds right now because investors are eager to buy them.
Randy Vogel with Wilmington Trust says that's in large part because investors expect big corporations to do well this year.
That said, economic growth could slow down this year, or the Fed might hold off on rate cuts if inflation were to pick up.
In other words, the amount of bonds that corporations are issuing is a gauge that shows how the broader economy is doing.
I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.
The last time that corporations piled on a lot of debt was in the wake of the pandemic.
Maureen O'Connor with Wells Fargo says that's because borrowing money was cheap back then.
And O'Connor says much of that debt is about to expire this year.
O'Connor says another reason companies are borrowing so much money is that many of them hope to purchase other firms this year, and companies often use debt to finance mergers and acquisitions.
Finally, there's all of the AI infrastructure tech firms are building around the country.
Guy Labat is with Jenny Montgomery Scott.
LaBasse says those capital expenditures pay contractors, suppliers, and other companies that have been issuing new debt of their own.
Companies also feel like they can issue bonds right now because investors are eager to buy them.
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