@siggy47 mostly covered it.
Another thing to look out for is the number of businesses that will go under / lay people off. Many businesses finance their operations with debt. When that debt comes due, they'll roll over with new debt. But if the new debt is at a higher rate, that's an added cost and all of a sudden they can't afford the same operation as before. Unless they somehow increase revenues, they will have to downsize or simply eat the cost and lose money. But not all businesses are able to do that for a sustained period of time.
Some may even argue that this benefits the bigger players, who because of their size and stability are still able to acquire relatively cheap financing even in the high-rate environment. It's the small businesses and speculative startups that are likely to get hurt the most.
Very good point. In fact today's Wall Street Journal has an article on the rise of small business bankruptcies.
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