Because the economy has been growing at a healthy rate investment bankers said that worries about widespread defaults among junk-bond issuers are subdued.

The Suffolk County tax auction is an offshoot of a system set up in the 1930's when the county faced widespread defaults on property taxes.

Responding to widespread defaults that jolted the municipal bond market of the day, new state statutes were passed that restricted the issuance of local debt.

In 1820s, the wave of loans to most of the newly independent nations of Latin America was followed by widespread default.

The major economic crisis caused widespread defaults on loans, especially at Íslandsbanki.

Experts said the New York area was not experiencing anything resembling the widespread defaults and foreclosures of the Sunbelt.

Andrew Ball, of Spicers & Oppenheim, accountants to the Stock Exchange, said yesterday: '1 January is impossible and there will be widespread default.

These widespread defaults (and related foreclosures) had effects far beyond the housing market.

There does not seem much danger of widespread defaults today, a contrast to the late 1980's, when shaky real estate lending accounted for much of the run-up in business debt.

Even though widespread default and failures never occurred, lenders have remained timid.