Four Signs of An Emerging Credit Crunch

From CBS Marketwatch:

Early signs of an impending credit crunch are everywhere:

* Mortgage lenders going out of business, and the lenders left standing are closing their subprime and Alt-A origination channels.
* The spread between corporate debt and riskless Treasurys has widened dramatically. Standard & Poor's has said most corporate debt is now speculative grade.
* Credit for leveraged buyouts has dried up, with dozens of deals canceled, postponed or repriced. The market for complex derivatives such as collateralized debt obligations has shut down like a "constipated owl," according to bond fund manager Bill Gross.
* The price of insuring asset-backed securities against default has soared.