In the developed economies, the ultra-easy monetary policy measures, which also had a quasi-fiscal side to them, provided an outlet for the liquidity of the corporate bonds – either directly through purchase of corporate paper or through the massive purchases of government and agency bonds in turn providing liquidity to the corporate bonds thanks to ‘search for yield’ strategies.
This was besides the corporate bailouts, like the auto industry in the US. Leverage in its extension can be debt overhang. Interesting though is the larger issue that jurisdictions where interest rates are negative or close to zero, the concept of “debt overhang” becomes meaningless, rendering high debt-to-GDP economies and their highly leveraged corporate solvent, which otherwise are not.