One huge issue I've seen as a result of near-zero interest rates is how this has hit tax collection from corporations and the very wealthy. Currently, if a com

One huge issue I've seen as a result of near-zero interest rates is how this has hit tax collection from corporations and the very wealthy. Currently, if a company earns profits overseas and doesn't repatriate those funds then the IRS doesn't tax them. This all came about due to ridiculous IP licensing that tech companies engaged in (eg sell their IP to an Irish subsidiary and then license it as a form of transfer pricing, essentially). So companies are faced with a choice of repatriating "foreign" profits at 21%+ or just borrowing money locally at 1-2% to cover local cash needs. This is a big reason why corporate debt has ballooned: it's essentially just deferring tax obligations for years, hopefully long enough so they can buy another Congress to pass a "one-time" tax holiday. Then rinse and repeat. What the US needs to do is to treat all borrowings as the repatriation of that same amount of money of foreign profits.