Word: default
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...record $16.4 billion in bonds, proving that deals can be done in this battered sector, but at high premiums. The bonds (the 10-year coupon pays 7.75%) include step-up coupons that pay more if credit ratings drop. Downgrades have outnumbered upgrades for 11 quarters, and the industry's default probability more than doubled last year, to more than 4.85%. While the forecast is a bit rosier for wireless and data services, Moody's managing director, Bob Konefal, says, "The old Aa rates are, for the most part, history...
...investigation of the question, creates an impression that anyone who does consider the question seriously would conclude the wrong way--that the position is so feeble as to require insulation from attack. It lets conservatives style themselves as victims and romantic dissenters; it lets the worst arguments win by default...
Granted, the track record for alcohol-serving establishments in the Square may seem daunting, so it may well be that Daedalus will become the most popular attraction on the block by default. Thankfully, however, the bar-restaurant has a lot more to boast than just a liquor license. The owners promise a menu that includes scrumptious meats (including anaconda, the snake featured in the hit song of the early '90s, "Baby Got Back") and an upstairs lounge that sports plush chairs and a groovy dome window...
...running to acquire Belgian steelmaker Cockerill Sambre when the Belgian government sold most of its stake in 1998. Arbed instead bought 35% of Aceralia, leaving Usinor and Germany's Thyssen-Krupp in the running for Cockerill. When the Germans pulled out, Usinor got Cockerill's mills by default. Now those same mills are part of the new company-the most expendable part. No surprise then that workers there greeted the merger announcement with a one-day walkout...
This week CBS takes the battle to the biggest target of all. ER is America's reigning No. 1 series, but partly by default: it has had little competition for years, except weak newsmagazines. And lately it has become prime-time's biggest, albeit best-loved, piece of deadwood, relying on stunt casting, gunshots in the corridors, tearjerking storylines and ever-more-Job-like afflictions for its long-suffering staff. With Anthony Edwards announcing his departure in 2002, the writers have more than a year to slowly and mawkishly kill his Dr. Mark Greene with that brain tumor...