Opinion

The Decade of the Living Dead: How Zombie Companies Are Robbing Tomorrow’s Economy

The percentage of companies that can’t afford to pay the interest on their debt has reached a new all-time high in the wake of central bank intervention.

By Nathaniel WhittemoreLayer 2

Sep 15, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. UTCUpdated Sep 14, 2021 at 9:56 a.m. UTC

Breakdown 9.15 — (VectorPocket/Getty Images)

By Nathaniel WhittemoreLayer 2

Sep 15, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. UTCUpdated Sep 14, 2021 at 9:56 a.m. UTC

Nathaniel Whittemore

The percentage of companies that can’t afford to pay the interest on their debt has reached a new all-time high in the wake of central bank intervention.

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This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Today on the Brief:

MicroStrategy increases its bitcoin reserves by $175 million
The Oracle-TikTok deal starts to smell fishy
The SEC is investigating claims of fraud involving Nikola Corp.

Our main discussion: The rise of zombie firms.

A zombie firm is a company that can’t afford to service its debt from operating income. These companies are made possible by artificially low interest rates, and they drain resources from the economy.

On today’s episode, NLW explains:

Why there are more zombie companies than ever
The negative impact they have on the economy
How they could drive a new financial crisis

Read more about

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