rates are hurting those who formerly relied on interest-bearing accounts to generate a little extra income during their retirement years. Kind of hard to rely on this now, being that interest rates are so low.

The other side of the fence is the impact such low rates are causing a binge among companies to overload their payables (bond payments) to the point that if the economy goes south, then who knows what could happen.

I wouldn't be surprised that some of this corporate borrowing (I need to look into) is going back into the stock market to repurchase shares/stock, but this has a sharp edge to it that if not careful, they'll cut themselves w/ it. High stock prices means overpaying for company stock, and thus, loading up on bond payments, so if markets go south, a double whammy, stock markets down and still have the bond payments to make.

and look what junk bonds did to us not so long ago.

None of this would start a downturn but if other conditions show up, like a widened mideast war, any of them will surely turn us into a recession, possibly a major one.

bite these companies. Strange that interest rates on what people pay to buy cars etc. have remained high. And I see (it has been happening for years too) that companies actually issue low paying bonds just to make their semi-annual dividend payments. I don't know what the catalyst will be that will trigger higher cost money, I suspect perhaps a couple of high profile bankruptcies or defaults, regardless of the cheap money, but who knows? People have been predicting that the markets are due for an eventual correction (me included) but it still hasn't happened.

They'll just trigger another financial collapse - and use the panic to get Uncle Sam to bail them out of most of that.

Our government has become what in other countries is called a "stupid partner" to Big Business - especially the banksters.