Take a look at the red line in the chart below, which refers to the share of grades given that are A's: Most recently, about 43 percent of all letter grades given were A's, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988.
"When the share of lower-grade issuance (particularly at the B- level or lower) exceeds 30% for a sustained period of time," says S&P, "it generally serves as a reliable indicator of imminent default pressure two or three years ahead".Most investors in the junk market, of course, do not intend to be around that long.
Boys also increased their share of A* grades.
The share of A-grades went up too, by 0.8 percentage points compared with last year, and now stands at 26.7%.
Their analysis (published in the Teachers College Record) confirms that the share of A grades awarded has skyrocketed over the years.
Their principal finding, according to Catherine Rampell, who wrote the post: "The share of A grades awarded has skyrocketed over the years".
The gap between the proportion of girls getting A*-C and boys is at its highest rate since 2003 despite boys getting a slightly higher share of A* grades.
By 2004 the share of A* grades was 59%, and in 2009 hit 82% (at which point Westminster switched to different exams).Such startling results should trigger curiosity, you might think.
Pension funds, insurers and other big investors must increase their portfolio share of noninvestment-grade debt in order to meet their actuarial requirements.
According to Standard & Poor's LCD, a research unit which tracks leveraged lending, the share of non-investment grade loans held by banks in America fell by over 30 percentage points to around a fifth between 2000 and the first six months of this year.
