The market for high yield (below investment-grade) corporate bonds developed in the middle 1980s. We show that, since this time, the high yield spread has had significant explanatory power for the business cycle. We interpret this finding as possibly symptomatic of financial factors at work in...

This paper examines the consequences of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 for the structure of the U.S. financial services industry. We ask how the industry may evolve as this new legislation interacts with the consolidation trend already under way, what types of mergers are most...