The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, with $12.4 billion in debt and a glut of high-speed network capacity.
In the 1970s, high interest rates, mounting debt and a glut of office space combined to hurt the company so badly that it sold off many properties.
Suntech Power Holdings, one of the world's largest manufacturers of solar panels, was already struggling with heavy debt, a global glut of solar panels that has wiped out the industry's profits and a new round of tariffs imposed by the United States.
High and supposedly unmanageable debt loads, a glut of electricity and continued repercussions from the collapse of Enron were among the ills that plagued the industry and drove share prices into the ground.
Citing the need for greater aid for homeowners struggling under the glut of debt, the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church introduced a proposal to ensure more mortgages were modified.
The major problem is a global glut of debt.
As James Grant, gold bug and publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a newsletter, points out, in recent years the huge glut of government debt has not stopped a sharp rise in its price.
The private equity industry has benefited in the last year from a glut of cheap debt that has washed through the markets, giving these firms the firepower needed to take a company private.
As they work through a glut of soured debts, from credit card balances to overdue auto loans, some of the big lenders are going to court to get what they are owed, according to interviews with judges, lawyers for consumers and federal regulators.
But the resulting glut of public sector debt could change the financial game.
