September 14, 2007 (LPAC)--A new poll of corporate chief financial officers reported by The New York Times Floyd Norris, taken by Duke University and CFO Magazine, shows a "surge of pessimism." Nearly a third of the financial bosses say their companies have been hurt by the credit market turmoil. And few see much benefit from Fed action. Nearly half think a cut of half a percentage point would not help their companies at all, and most of the rest see only a small benefit from such a move."

For many companies, says Norris, the immediate credit issue is not price (interest rate), but the availability of credit at any rate.

The next step downward in the crisis may come from a company that is unable to sell their junk paper as a means of borrowing to pay off commercial paper that comes due. For instance, in the second quarter, the total volume of new junk bonds and leveraged loans averaged $88 billion a month; in August, the figure fell to $6.6 billion, a 93 percent drop.