Welcome to CreditPulse
CreditPulse is an online journal for credit, accounting and finance professionals that provides in-depth coverage, analysis and perspective in specific areas of credit management, accounting and credit markets. In addition, CreditPulse monitors the credit standards and other performance-related credit and accounting benchmarks of public companies through its proprietary Credit Standards Index (CSI).
Spansion Inc. bankruptcy illustrates the risk posed by companies dependent on high market caps in boom times for survival. The company was below the industry averages on all five CSI benchmarks.
Like many in the auto parts industry, California-basd Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide is nervous about recent events in the U.S. auto industry. But unlike others, Quantum lacks established markets for its futuristic products and has never earned a profit. A secret lender?
Chrysler LLC, the third largest U.S.-based auto maker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 30th in an unorthodox government-led bankruptcy in which the U.S. Treasury will contribute some $3.3 billion and the company's labor union will become majority owner.
The United States gross domestic product (GDP) declined for the third straight quarter for the first time since 1974-75. U.S. GDP has declined 12.9 percent since the third quarter of 2008.
Vanguard founder John C. Bogle points the blame for the credit crisis at more than just easy credit, cavalier risk attitudes and complex derivatives. A breakdown in traditional ethical standards and managerial self-interest over company-interest are also to blame, says Bogle.
The nation's largest commercial banks have been at the epicenter of the credit crisis. Last month, the most troubled of these banks, New York-based Citigroup, announced it was splitting apart into two segments basically undoing the mammoth merger of a decade ago. John Reed, former Citicorp CEO, admits merger was "a mistake."
The committee of unsecured creditors of Archway Cookies LLC, an entity that filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 6, 2008, filed suit last Friday against the private-equity firm Catterton Partners and a host of others for what it called "widespread accounting fraud that permeated throughout the debtor's management," according to the complaint.
