So, who makes the list? Ranked by industry, media is the big champion: I count 46 media companies on the list. (And this is without the help of companies like Tribune and Young Broadcasting, who don't make the list ... because they've already defaulted.) And who says newspapers have a monopoly on media woes? New additions to the list include T.V. companies Univision, Newport Television, and Allbritton Communications (which also owns Politico).
There is a close race for second between the automotive and retail industries, and, it seems to me, a surprisingly high number of fast food restaurants -- like Arby's, Sbarro, Krispy Kreme (and El Pollo Loco). Others that might be of interest include Blockbuster, Duane Reade, Eastman Kodak, Eddie Bauer, Rite Aid, Reader's Digest and Six Flags. Here's the breakdown:
The worry with any such list, however, is that it tars all its members with the same brush. A list of 283 contains huge variation in default risk, and risk can be self-fulfilling: the knowledge that a particular company is having liquidity trouble makes its liquidity trouble worse. If I were in charge at Allbritton, I wouldn't be happy about sitting on the same list as General Motors.Full Moody's report:
bottom rung report.pdf
