Using the sample of US industrial firms over the period of 2000-2017, we find that firms tend to issue more debt after the global financial crisis to take advantage of lower borrowing rates and specifically, BBB-rated firms increase debt issuance more than other firms. We also document that the BBB-rated firms build up cash and increase payout ratios using the proceeds from the issuance in the post-crisis period. However, they tend not to increase R&D expenses or capital expenditures following the debt issuance. We further find that the market value of cash for BBB-rated firms is decreasing in the post-crisis period as they increase cash holdings, while that for other investmentgrade firms does not change. These results are consistent with the view of agency costs.