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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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092589
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09258900.019
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1990-09-17
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BUSINESS, Page 54Panic in the Junk Pile
The latent dread of junk-bond investors is that one really
colorful case of corporate distress might set off a selling spree
in the volatile market for the high-yield securities. Last week
their fears shot to the surface when Canada's Campeau Corp. said
it might default on its debt, which is in part composed of junk
bonds. That disclosure sparked the market's worst drubbing since
the Crash of 1987, as traders rushed to dump their holdings. During
the week, junk-bond issues fell in price by $10 to as much as $130
for each $1,000 in face value. The rout left Wall Streeters
wondering whether the securities that had fueled the decade's wave
of takeovers and buyouts might be headed for a long-term crisis of
confidence.
The $200 billion junk-bond market has grown explosively since
the early 1980s, when Drexel Burnham Lambert's Michael Milken
pioneered the use of high-yield bonds as a means to finance hostile
takeovers. In the wake of his indictment last March for insider
trading and racketeering, Milken has resigned his Drexel post and
stayed far removed from the market. But speaking at a Manhattan
conference on high-yield debt last week, Milken suggested that it
was time to buy, not sell, junk bonds. Said he: "There is
tremendous opportunity out there today."
Milken's creation had fallen on hard times even before the
Campeau mess. So far this year, borrowers have defaulted on a
record $3.2 billion worth of junk bonds, already $1 billion more
than during all 1988. Among the notable casualties was Merv
Griffin's Resorts International, which conceded last month that it
could not meet its annual interest and principal payments of $133
million.
Investors had expected the junk-bond market to soften during
an economic downturn. But they have been taken aback that defaults
are rising and junk-bond prices are plunging during a time of
relatively stable growth. The implication is that any serious
industrial slump could give the junk-bond market a full-fledged
nervous breakdown.