Moody's Names 283 Companies Likely to Default

Credit-ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service today released what it calls “The Bottom Rung,” a list of 283 companies—15% of all those it tracks—it says are most likely to default on their debts. Moody’s has been widely lambasted for failing to catch the credit problems in and around the mortgage markets, and it’s now hoping to get ahead of corporate bankruptcies, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Moody’s estimates that roughly 45% of Bottom Rung companies will default. Some of the names on the list are no surprise—think GM and Chrysler—but the list also includes much of the casino sector, many retail chains, newspapers, TV and radio networks, airlines, restaurants chains and energy firms. Not surprisingly, it includes some companies that insist they’re healthy, including Kodak and Univision.
(More Moody's stories.)