NewsColony

Elizabeth Warren predicted impending economic crash last year. Her warnings weren’t heeded NewsColony Warren pointed out that consumers were getting squeezed by “a generation of stagnant wages” and the rising costs of basic goods and services. So in order to boost their buying power, American households had taken on increased debt at historic levels in the form of student loans, credit card debt, auto loans. On the business side of the equation, “systemic risk” was pulsating through the economy in the form of corporate debt. “Leveraged lending—lending to companies that are already seriously in debt—has jumped by 40 % since Trump took office,” Warren wrote. Practically speaking, this leveraged debt posed a similar risk to the predatory lending to consumers that helped tank the economy last decade. Just like the pre-2008 subprime mortgages, the new corporate loans are “poorly-underwritten loans with minimal protections that are then packaged and sold to investors.” In addition, ...