31.   If the economy really does turn around, then default rates are going to come down and price performance of the bonds ought to be pretty good.

32.   If the school has an excessively high student-loan default rate.

33.   In the fourth quarter, high-income funds, often called junk bond funds, had a slowdown as default rates continued to rise.

34.   Late last year, the company noticed that loans from particular dealers had a higher default rate.

35.   Or a retailer misjudges the default rate on its credit business.

36.   One difficulty in analyzing the junk-bond outlook is in measuring the default rate with precision.

37.   Stung by rising default rates by consumers, banks have tightened credit standards and cancelled marketing programs aimed at signing up new credit card customers.

38.   That, he said, led to overly optimistic estimates of low default rates that were masked by donors covering up loan losses.

39.   That is particularly true in good economic times like these, when default rates on junk bonds stand far below their peaks.

40.   The companies say they offer students low credit lines and point out that the default rate for students is no higher than for the rest of the population.