Defeasing Discounted Debt: An Economic Analysis
分析企业通过设立不可撤销信托来从资产负债表中移除债务的实质解除操作，发现该操作将财富从股东转移给债权人，因为债权人用风险较高的公司债务换取了无风险的政府证券支持现金流。
In-substance defeasance is a debt restructuring tool that allows a corporation to remove debt from its balance sheet by establishing an irrevocable trust that will generate future cash flows sufficient to service the defeased debt.' Bonds, debentures, notes, and leases [3] are examples of debt that have been extinguished using in-substance defeasance. A search of the National Automated Accounting Retrieval System (NAARS) documented 117 defeasance transactions through December 1985 of which 54 transactions involved bonds or debentures.2 Statement of Financial Accounting Standards Number 76 [2], while allowing in-substance defeasance, restricts the assets placed in the trust to U.S. Government securities. Given this restriction, Weil [5] conclud s that there is a wealth transfer from the corporation's stockholders to its debt holders. That is, the debt holders are in effect trading future cash flows backed by a risky corporation for cash flows backed by riskless government securities. Since less risky debt is more costly, the stockholders are subsidizing the debt holders.