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Government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have closed down a significant portion of the global economy, creating severe liquidity problems for many companies at a time when the corporate sector is historically highly leveraged across the board. So while the 2001 and 2008 economic downturns put only a relatively limited number of companies under serious cash-flow pressure — those that were both leveraged and whose earnings were sensitive to the economic cycle — the current crisis has left swathes of companies scrambling for cash.