In the past week alone, two companies completed distressed exchange offers--US-based Liz Claiborne and Canada-based Cinram International.

This brings the total number of corporate defaults so far this year to six, including four based in the US, according to Standard & Poor's.

Limited Brands said it will sell $750 million in 10-year notes. The company said it intends to use the proceeds to repurchase $500 million of stock under a new share repurchase program and for general corporate purposes.

The move seemed to surprise some commentators. But investors applauded the move, bidding up the stock by more than 1 percent when it began trading Tuesday morning.

What are the chances that a company that has defaulted on its debt defaults for a second time?

Not very high.

Here is further proof the economy in general is improving.

Despite stubbornly high unemployment, Standard & Poor's reported a decline in monthly default rates for all credit lines.

This piece published today by Project Syndicate is as insightful a critique as I've seen of the consensus that has emerged among policymakers that government deficits must be cut to restore economic growth.

Not that we haven't taken a stab at that ourselves.

A survey released today by the Association of Financial Professionals will do nothing to dampen the austerity versus stimulus debate.

To wit: Forty-three percent of US corporations had larger US cash and short-term investment holdings this May than they did six months earlier. Only 24 percent of respondents reported that their short-term holdings had shrunk during the past six months.

So much for those dire forecasts calling for massive defaults of junk bonds.

Fitch Ratings says the pace of high yield defaults has slowed so dramatically in 2010 they have even defied the most optimistic forecasts.

I really don't understand what the Times means when it says the European Central Bank lacks certain powers that the Federal Reserve has.

Yes, the ECB lacks the Fed's dual mandate: The ECB's mission is price stability alone, not that plus full employment. Nor does it have access to a government treasury. But what practical effect does any of this have? None that I can see.

The violent backlash against the rescue plan that Europe has come up with for Greece should be a warning sign for those who think the bond market should rule public policy.

Yes, Greece must get its act together in terms of the black market and corruption, and tighten its belt on public finances. It simply has no other choice. But austerity isn't going to help the country repay its debt, not when the global economy continues to suffer from weak demand.

What does the recent "spike" in bond yields really mean? To listen to folks like Greenspan or Robert Samuelson, it means investors are worried about US creditworthiness.

And while I've gone on about this twice the past few days, here's a more useful reality check, courtesy of James Hamilton, a professor of finance at the University of California at San Diego who the Fed actually pays some attention to.