Hood Critic
The Power Circle
A year ago, financial watchdogs were sounding an alarm about escalating levels of shoddy corporate debt ― even JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon joined in. This bubble ― $10 trillion by some estimates ― will almost certainly burst in the current downturn. Credit rating agencies are downgrading massive quantities of corporate debt, in many cases for retailers that seemed perfectly healthy only a few weeks ago.
When this corporate debt gets cut to junk-bond status, massive pension funds and hedge funds and other investment vehicles will be forced to dump them ― either for matters of professional dignity or because the law forbids them from owning junk bonds. Even the Federal Reserve’s massive new emergency lending facilities require firms to post investment grade securities as collateral ― no junk bonds allowed.
Sweet Black Jesus