Junk Bonds.

As the recession increases the pace of industrial closings in the Rust Belt, one Midwestern manufacturer, Cleveland Art, is actually benefiting from the economic downturn. Its furniture is in numerous Ralph Lauren stores, Steven Spielberg has bought some pieces for his home, and the company recently opened a store in Los Angeles. Yet its design studio is in a dilapidated industrial building in Ohio, surrounded by an acre of land covered with rusting machine parts. That's because the designer Jason Wein and his 10 or so employees make furniture out of scraps salvaged from shuttered factories, of which there is no shortage. The gears, turbines, pipes and panels -- typically from the 1860s to the 1920s -- are the objects from which they create dressers, seating, tables and lamps. Wein, 38, started making furniture in the early '90s, while living in an old car factory in Cleveland. ''It was unheated, but I really liked the space,'' he says. ''I had no money, so I made my own furniture from parts that were left behind.'' Before long, visitors were saying they loved his coffee table -- unaware that its legs might have come from a conveyor belt and its top from a riveting machine -- and asking how much he'd sell it for. Today, Cleveland Art makes about 15 tables a week, selling for $1,500 to $15,000. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]