>Michael, Doug, Kasriel sort of appears to concede Noland's point.
About credit risk, yes. Not about their immunity to Fed tightening. In fact, the kinds of anomalous interest rate spreads Noland talks about - expanding risk premiums, for example, of the sort that did in LTCM - are more likely to occur when the Fed is in a hostile mode. When the Fed is easy, investors get mellow about risk; when it's tight, they get nervous.
Doug