[bokstavkjeks]

Debt can be a strategic tool for a company. They want to maintain a certain debt-to-equity ratio as eliminating debt would probably be more expensive in the long run than maintaining that ratio. The ratio is, of course, not set in stone and is rather industry specific. The short, sweet, and overly simplified version is that debt provides tax shields and liquidity now. $100 now can be worth more than $120 in five years, so most companies are okay with a certain amount of debt.

[baybal2]

But not now. Find a major company that is not critically overleveraged thanks to near net negative interest rates few years ago. Now there is a chance that effective rates will go all the way to eighties era numbers next decade, and the next debt crisis may also be close.