second-lien loan

#Yield Signs

Deep inside a cave some 200 miles east of Cape Town, South Africa, archeologists uncovered ancient markings that represent the earliest evidence of human drawing. The hashtag precurser – six parallel lines criss-crossed by three diagonals – was etched by a prehistoric artist over 73,000 years ago with a red ochre crayon on a small…

Second Thoughts (Last of a Series)

It’s hard to know exactly when second-lien term loans first appeared in the leveraged loan market. According to S&P’s Loan Primer, they showed up in the mid-1990s, as the institutional market grew, and then vanished with the Russian debt crisis of 1998. Our suspicion is these structures evolved from “over-advance” facilities in conjunction with asset-based loans,…

Second Thoughts (Second of a Series)

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an Eastern Airlines plane! We thought we were having flashbacks from rum-soaked Acapulco trips we took back in the 1970’s, but turns out the iconic “Wings of Man” brand is making a comeback of sorts. Beginning with charter flights, Eastern is re-launching aviation service in March. No mention…

Second Thoughts (First of a Series)

We noted with amusement a tidbit in Friday’s WSJ on professional cuddling. Apparently a growing number of fully clothed people are paying snuggle experts for services that include squeezing, tickling, and bear-hugging. “I felt transformed,” one client reported. Besides trying to wrap our brain around the fine distinction between this activity and…well, others, we were…