we are talking, of course, about restructuring bankers who advising companies with massive debt veering toward bankruptcy, or once in it, how to exit from the clutches of Chapter 11, and who - like the IMF, whose chief Christine Lagarde recently said "When The World Goes Downhill, We Thrive" - flourish during financial chaos and mass defaults.

Which is to say that the past decade has not been exactly friendly to the world's restructuring bankers, who with the exception of two bursts of activity, the oil collapse-driven E&P bust in 2015 and the bursting of the retail "bricks and mortar" bubble in 2017, have been generally far less busy than usual, largely as a result of abnormally low rates which have allowed most companies to survive as "zombies", thriving on the ultra low interest expense.

However, as Moody's warned yesterday, and as the IMF cautioned a year ago, this period of artificial peace and stability is ending, as rates rise and as a avalanche of junk bond debt defaults. And judging by their recent public comments, restructuring bankers have rarely been more exited about the future.