Rising equity markets blinded customers to their role as patsy.
And then, when rates will rise," equity strategists at HSBC wrote in a research note.
Attractive prices on new issues and rising equity markets have also greased demand.
Meanwhile, rising equity markets embolden activist investors to buy stakes in underperforming companies like Fortune Brands and push for a breakup.
Years of falling interest rates and rising equity valuations have shrunk the cost of capital for firms such as Aegon.
Virtually all the rise in non-financial debt since 2000 was among households, as Americans tapped into the rising equity in their homes.
Moreover, high and rising equity prices had facilitated a good deal of financing for newer companies, both in the equity and bond markets.
Rising equity and house prices drove up the net-worth-to-income ratio of the wealthiest tenth of Americans from 5.8 in 1989 to 8.4 in 2004.
After all, the total pension-fund deficit of the FTSE100 companies has not come down that much despite rising equity markets.
At the same time, investors are pressing for bigger payouts as income-producing shares are a boon during a period when they cannot bank on rising equity values.
