1.   A lower rating generally means that a bond issuer must pay higher interest.

2.   Across the industry, issuers are paying more for marketing and bad loans and earning less in interest payments, squeezing profits.

3.   In some cases, a bond issuer will pay a credit rating agency for an analysis of the debt it wants to sell.

4.   Issuers often pay a higher interest rate on unrated than on rated bonds.

5.   Issuers must pay to have their bonds rated, so small issuers can save by selling unrated paper, even if they have to pay junk yields.

6.   Most are either no-load funds or funds whose issuers pay fees to Fidelity or Schwab.

7.   The advantage is that the children and grandchildren receive the income while the issuer pays the income tax.

8.   The bond issuers generally pay for the ratings and investors rely on them to judge the riskiness of securities they plan to buy.

9.   These so-called structured notes appear at first to be simple bonds, but they incorporate derivatives that enable the issuer to pay a pepped-up return.

10.   Such a rating might require a debt issuer to pay more interest to attract lenders.