The more precariously positioned ARM borrowers are very much on the minds of economists, some of whom fear that masses of consumers will not be able to afford the new higher payments, setting off a recession.
Their scheme might still be working, except that a $300,000 ransom fee intended for kidnappers of a Russian businessman named Edouard Olevinskiy used the Benex pipeline to make the payment and set off an F.B.I. investigation.
It has until May 1 to make good on interest payments or set off a default, which would send it into bankruptcy protection.
The governor of the country's third most populous state, who in 1999 declared a moratorium on foreign debt payments that set off a currency crisis, has ordered the electricity utility Minas Gerais to defy a government energy rationing plan that went into effect last Friday.
As a result, missed payments would probably set off a whirlwind of litigation.
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association said the Greek rescue plan should not set off payments of credit-default swaps because the debt exchange plan would be voluntary.
But in its lawsuit, Enron disputed that it had misrepresented its finances, that Dynegy knew about the $690 million before the merger agreement was signed and that the accelerated payment of the debt was set off only after that date.
This is important, Ms. Katz says, when it comes to the definitions of conditions and health events that set off benefit payments.
They aimed for a voluntary debt exchange that would not initiate the default swaps, fearing that payments on the swaps might set off destabilizing chain reactions through Europe's financial system.
The auditors also said a delisting would set off a hastened payment schedule for the $100 million in convertible notes the company borrowed in June.
