We often hear the word “bubble” thrown around when people are taking about various financial markets, asset classes, and sectors. But just what does the word really mean? In looking at the various definitions of an economic or speculative “bubble” …

We have seen extreme volatility over the past week, with a precipitous fall and rebound for equities. It is often said that the bond markets lead the way, and over the last month or so, we have seen spreads widen …

If there was any question about it, the financial crisis of 2008 demonstrated to us all just how flawed the ratings process is, where AAA debt was suddenly in default and highly rated companies all of a sudden required bailouts …

Over the last 20 years, there have been two major default cycles. One in 2001/2002 and another in 2009.1 There have been apprehensions that today’s energy market issues will cause another major default cycle for the broad high yield market, …

The entire U.S. fixed income market (municipals, Treasuries, mortgages, corporates, federal agency bonds, money market, and asset back securities) totals $39.2 trillion.1 Of this, corporate credit is about $8 trillion. The high yield bond market is a growing piece of …