and bills will come back from the fractions of today to 3.5%. michelle, at some point when normalcy returns, there will be people who can go back to putting money into treasuries or bank accounts because interest rates will come up. until then, they do remain the biggest gains in town. what does this low interest rate mean for industries? what industries benefit the most from this type of thing? we re seeing it really much across the board. this is one of the the reasons why when people say it s just the fed pushing the stock market higher, the fundamentals that are supporting the stock market are there. the companies balance sheets are so strong in large part because across the board we have seen companies able to refinance their debt, bring down their interest expense, deleverage. all of this in this environment, corporations have strengthened and remained probably the strongest sector of the u.s.
across the country, so why are big companies sitting on cash piles allowing wall street to get bigger and bigger and main street is failing? you know, the simple answer is there s not demand in the economy. if companies felt like they had investment opportunities where they would see strong growth in the future, they certainly have access to capital, with the stock market higher, corporate debt rates are low, so they can borrow money cheaply, so companies have all the access to capital they might need to invest. they just aren t ig to do it, into you they don t see the opportunities out there. part of the story is with this stock run-up, that s overwhelmingly held by the wealthy, who are more likely to save their money than pend is 90% of the top ten have a retirement account, only 22% of middle-income families do. this is a story that s a more dramatic version of something that sing going on for 30 years. it s a troubling thing that s holding back or economy. kneale irwin, great t