U.S. corporations are in many cases twice as leveraged as they were in 2008, having applied new borrowings to buy back company stock and pay dividends, inflating stock prices rather than productively. Corporate debt often includes a high-yield tranche and with interest rates rising, low-rated corporate debt, along with high-yield bonds, could get hammered, as occurred just prior to the Great Recession (chart refers). Could low-rated, corporate debt and junk bonds replace subprime as a trigger for the in the next crisis? John Mauldin at Mauldin Economics thinks so. Yield in U.S. corporate debt have hit highs not seen since last November 2017. Caution is warranted.