US bankruptcies ‘to surge’ amid junk bond deluge

[emad]

Times
From James Doran, Wall Street Correspondent



THE US is heading for a surge in bankruptcies and a dramatic increase in corporate debt default as the number of companies with bonds rated at the lowest end of the junk bond scale reaches record levels.

More than 45 per cent of newly issued junk bonds are rated CCC, according to bond market analysts at Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a dramatic increase since 2003 when 30 per cent of the junk bond market was made up of companies that were a notch away from default.

“Whenever the proportion of new issuances trading at triple C rises above 30 per cent, there is cause for concern,” said Diane Vazza, head of global fixed income research at S&P.

If a company’s debt is rated at CC or CCC, there is a 30 per cent likelihood that it will fail within a year, Ms Vazza said, and means the greater the number of companies rated at the bottom of the junk bond scale, the greater the number of defaults in the next 12 months.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1497723,00.html

[Francis]

1. Cannot access site

the message is that you have to be a subscriber

[emad]

2. Put it up on google and it's free. Otherwise PM me and I'll send

over the whole story to you.

[central scrutinizer]

3. gee, if you had had those in your "personal account"

and were planning on retirement, you might have enough left to buy some blue tarps at the hardware store and then go look for a bridge to live under.

[gratuitous]

4. Well, corporate bankruptcies are okay

See, when rich folks go bankrupt, they're merely, uh, restructuring their debt so as to become more efficient and create more wealth and, um, jobs. It's all about saving jobs. You don't want to throw hard-working Amurikins out of work, do you? You commie.

But when Johnny Wageslave files for bankruptcy because he broke his leg without getting permission from his insurance company first, and he picked up a nasty infection at the hospital, and he was unable to work or even pass a day without excruciating pain for almost nine months, that's abuse of the system, and someone has to pay. In this case, Johnny Wageslave.

I still marvel at a system that allows billionaire Paul Allen to declare bankruptcy so he can avoid a couple of million dollars of obligations for his Trilobyte by the Willamette, aka The Rose Garden.

[Deja Q]

9. And Donald Trump no less... As for Mr. Allen...

Paul Allen - he was a cofounder of MICROSOFT. The little fucker should be worth billions and HE filed for bankruptcy? That's beyond appalling.

Awesome post and right on the money, too. (pun not really intented)

[dbt]

5. Once again, the truth comes from OVERSEAS MEDIA

Meanwhile, we get Michael's Jury wall-to-wall here.

[TheFarseer]

6. Don't we ever learn anything?

We're seriously going to have the junk bond crisis again?! And then they want to flood the stock market with Social Security money so that prices can be over-inflatted and the bubble can burst. Then we want to send all our jobs overseas so that products won't cost as much, but we won't have any money to even buy the cheeper products. We really are a stupid damn country.

[pelagius]

7. Damn! Junk bond crisis again! Must be getting...

...about time for another S&L collapse! :-(

[SpiralHawk]

8. George W. will appoint brother Neil "Silverado Slim" Bush

to straighten this mess out. Good to have someone with intimate knowledge of S& L corruption at the Head of the Republican effort to make more money from the American people.