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While companies large and small are already succumbing to the economic effects of the coronavirus, experts say the wave of bankruptcies is going to get bigger, the New York Times reported. Edward I. Altman, the creator of the Z score, a widely used method of predicting business failures, estimated that this year will easily set a record for so-called mega bankruptcies — filings by companies with $1 billion or more in debt. And he expects the number of merely large bankruptcies — at least $100 million — to challenge the record set the year after the 2008 economic crisis. Even a meaningful rebound in economic activity over the coming months won’t stop it, Altman said. More than 6,800 companies filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year, and this year will almost certainly have more. The flood of petitions from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression could swamp the system, making it harder to save the companies that can be rescued, bankruptcy experts said. Without reform in the system, “we anticipate that a significant fraction of viable small businesses will be forced to liquidate, causing high and irreversible economic losses,” a group of academics said in a letter to Congress in May. Robert J. Keach, co-chair of ABI's Chapter 11 Reform Commission, said that many companies had so far managed to put off bankruptcy by amassing cash and conserving it as best they can: drawing down existing credit lines, furloughing workers, delaying projects and taking advantage of federal and state pandemic-relief programs. But when those programs expire, the companies will start burning through their cash. That’s when bankruptcy filings are likely to soar and stay elevated, Keach said. Expect “a Covid-19 cliff” in the next 30 to 60 days, he said.