Debt at CRBL has also jumped--not a bad thing if the leveraged returns more than compensate for increased interest costs.

FORBES: Buyback Boomlet

Returns on leveraged loans have lagged behind those achieved by high-yield bonds this year.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

Moreover, because hedge funds are so lightly regulated and often highly leveraged, their apparently superior returns are due, at least in part, to their taking on much more risk.

ECONOMIST: Clipped

Fully leveraged, the big operators made 25% returns on equity.

FORBES: Magazine Article

That spells danger for investors in leveraged ETFs, which use debt to magnify the returns of the index they follow.

ECONOMIST: Exchange-traded funds

More than 100 closed-end funds are trading at discounts to net-asset value of more than 20.0%, though most of them are leveraged, meaning they borrow money to amplify their returns, a risky strategy if disaster strikes the portfolio.

FORBES: Market Scan

To be worth it, their choice has to provide returns in excess of the cost of borrowing, if they are leveraged, and two thick layers of fees (their own, and those of the funds they choose).

ECONOMIST: Funds of hedge funds: Borrowing and betting | The

Instead, he used the team as an ATM to earn high returns from a dubious fund manager and his cable channel to pay himself a leveraged dividend.

FORBES: Requiem For A Baseball Team: Lessons From The Death Of The New York Mets

Once the exorbitant fees are taken into account, returns look much less impressive than the industry's promoters claim, and than an illiquid, leveraged and long-duration investment would warrant.

ECONOMIST: Private equity