Is the recession over? Is Corporate America out of the woods? Some indicators on Wall Street seem to say yes. Yields on junk bonds are way down. A lot of companies that were on the brink a year ago have refinanced, pushing maturities of debt out to 2014 or later. And if last March you had bought an assortment of shares in the shakiest borrowers you probably would have made a huge profit. Auto parts maker ArvinMeritor ( ARM - news - people ) was trading at 32 cents at its low on Mar. 11. It has since climbed 3,503% to $11.53.
But financial risk is not out of the system. Last year saw 207 bankruptcies of publicly traded companies. If there's a double-dip recession, this year's count could easily be as high. Leverage is still a big feature of American business. (more)
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