Monday, March 20, 2017

Junk bonds will be in trouble when interest rates rise

I know when interest rates start going up again permanently when the bull market really does come to an end and the interest rates, government bonds, interest rates are going to go very, very high ...., very high if I told you how high you would probably hang up now and not listen to me anymore. But in 1981 interest rates – short term interest rates in America – were over 20%, bonds were yielding over – long term bonds – was yielding over 15%.

We've had these long, long bull and bear markets in bonds in the United States and we probably will again. So when interest rates go higher the junk bonds are going to get destroyed both by interest rates and by credit defaults because many of them are in fact junk, the companies are not great creditors and they're going to pay the price.