We investigate the pairwise correlations of 11 U.S. fixed income yield spreads over a sample that includes the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2009. Using cross-sectional methods and nonparametric bootstrap breakpoint tests, we characterize the crisis as a period in which pairwise correlations...

We propose a comprehensive empirical examination of the time-varying leading properties of two high yield spreads in the United States and compare them with the leading properties of the term spread between the mid-1980s and the end of 2011. We show that high yield spreads are not reliable...