'Like throwing gas on a fire': Wall Street's top adviser to distressed companies is warning that a corporate debt binge during the pandemic may result in a years-long economic nightmare The economic fallout from the coronavirus is looking increasingly severe and unlikely to quickly subside. Companies that piled on debt in the early stages of the pandemic — thanks in large part to stimulus efforts by the Federal Reserve — may have set themselves up to struggle as the crisis drags on. Houlihan Lokey, Wall Street's top adviser to distressed companies, has changed its outlook: Instead of the sharp but quick downturn they initially anticipated, they're predicting a deeper, prolonged crisis that takes three to five years and pushes many more firms to bankruptcy. "Everybody wanted to save the economy and keep people working, but at some point there's going to be some pain, and it's not going to be quick or easy to work through the implications of all this added debt," William "Tuck" Hardie, a managing director with Houlihan Lokey's restructuring business, told Business Insider. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories . When the severity of the coronavirus began to dawn on the US in March, and the economic world suddenly stopped spinning, most companies had the same reaction to the resulting market crash: disbelief, followed by panic and a mad dash to find extra cash to keep their businesses afloat.