by winston » Wed Nov 19, 2025 8:48 am
The next big crisis in the financial markets is going to be private credit
In a recent CNBC interview, Gundlach said that while many assets are wildly overpriced, the real trouble spot isn’t flashy AI stocks – it’s the rapidly ballooning private-credit market.
To make sure we’re all on the same page, “private credit” refers to loans made outside the traditional banking system.
After regulators tightened lending standards in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, non-bank lenders stepped in – and the industry exploded from roughly $300 billion in 2010 to trillions today.
For borrowers, private credit offers flexibility when banks say no. For lenders, it promises high yields – often around 10% to 11%. But those juicy payouts come with a catch: leverage.
Bloomberg recently noted that over 40% of private-credit borrowers ended 2024 with negative free cash flow, a sharp increase from 2021.
Meanwhile, two recent bankruptcies – First Brands and Tricolor – have already forced portions of Wall Street to pull back.
Last month, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon summed it up bluntly:
When you see one cockroach, there are probably more.
Gundlach just echoed that same fear. He warned that lenders are making “garbage loans,” just like the pre-2008 subprime era, and he’s especially concerned about the push to package these loans and sell them to retail investors who expect easy withdrawals from fundamentally illiquid assets.
If redemptions surge, these funds could be forced into fire-sale losses.
Source: Investor Place
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"