Rising interest rates will make new borrowing more expensive.
But many are hanging on to marginal businesses, in the hope that reviving economies and rising interest rates will make them profitable again.
It may be true that higher interest rates will make consumers think twice before borrowing more cash and spending it on the high street, but what about the manufacturers struggling to make headway against the rising pound.
Higher oil prices will effectively shift some money from the United States to the Middle East and elsewhere, and higher interest rates will make it more expensive for businesses and households to borrow.
If the Fed announces an expansion of its bond-buying program at its next meeting in early November, traders assume that investors will resume buying stocks because low interest rates will make bonds less appealing.
Andrew Hood, an author of the report and an IFS research economist, said: "Sharp falls in home-ownership rates and in access to generous company pension schemes, alongside historically low interest rates, will make it much harder for today's young adults to build up wealth in future than it was for previous generations".
"I don't think we're out of the woods on credit issues," she said, but lower interest rates will help make bank stocks more attractive.
Higher interest rates will also make it more costly for the government to borrow money to feed the extensive spending projects that have helped keep Japan's economy from faltering even further over the last decade.
Low interest rates will help, making houses, cars and other big-ticket items seem affordable, and Washington policy makers are planning another tax cut.
Another uncertainty is the expectation that interest rates will rise, making it more expensive for some companies to refinance their debts and hurting companies in industries that benefited from the lower rates, like suppliers to the auto industry and home builders.
