"Airgas could become distressed in a severe downturn because it carries no cash on its balance sheet, and has everything in receivables, " says analyst Christopher Crooks of Janney Montgomery Scott.

FORBES: Stock Focus: Companies With Heavy Leverage

Securitisation, or the practice of bundling and selling more straightforward sorts of assets, such as mortgage receivables, has in one sense made banks more inscrutable, since banks are left with assets that are relatively opaque.

ECONOMIST: American banks

"Competition among business divisions" over which one had the "youngest" receivables "has stimulated the posting of memo entries in advance of actuals, " Folk, the revenue operations chief, wrote in a 1997 e-mail quoted in a lawsuit later filed by an MCI partner.

FORBES: Magazine Article