Municipal Bonds

Millionaires Can Rest Easy, Buffett Rule Still Has Loopholes To Exploit

The Huffington Post | Khadeeja Safdar | Posted 04.16.2012

Read More: Richest People, Bloomberg, Income Tax, Municipal-Bonds, Millionaires, Mitt Romney, Obama Administration, Warren Buffett, Obama, Whitney Tilson, Tax Evasion, Buffett Rule, Business News

President Obama's so-called Buffett Rule is supposed to make certain that top-earning Americans don't pay taxes at lower rates than their assistants. ...

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$3.7 Trillion Municipal Securities Market's Last U.S. Inspection 'Predated The Financial Crisis,' GAO Says

Posted 01.18.2012

Read More: Thewatchdog, Watchdog Column, Municipal Bonds, SEC Oversight, AirTran Whistleblower, Financial Crisis, Regulation, Credit Rating Agencies, Watchdog Blog, Regulatory Watchdog, Gao, Municipal Securities, Business News

Government oversight of the $3.7 trillion market for municipal securities, wracked by several high-profile cases of fraud and bid-rigging, is inadequa...

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GE Admits Former Traders Rigged Bids, Agrees To Pay Millions To Stop Probes

Posted 12.23.2011

Read More: Business News, Ge Muni Bond Rigging, General Electric, Ge Bond Rigging, Municipal Bonds, Video, Municipal Debt, Ge, Business News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co acknowledged that three former traders at a finance unit engaged in bid-rigging of municipal bonds and...

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How A City's Affordable Housing Loans Became A $10 Million Mess

HuffingtonPost.com | Jackie Ginley | Posted 11.18.2011

Read More: California Budget Problems, Municipal Bonds, California Municipal Bonds, Hercules Affordable Housing, Low-Income Housing, Hercules California, California Budget Crisis, Municipal Debt, Affordable Housing, Bay Area, San Francisco News

Reporters Bob Porterfield and Jackie Ginley are exploring the financial challenges facing Hercules for The Huffington Post and Hercules Patch. Read th...

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City's Affordable Housing Initiative Spent Nearly $50 Million, Produced Nothing

HuffingtonPost.com | Jackie Ginley | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Municipal Bonds, California Public Utilities Commision, California Municipal Bonds, Hercules Affordable Housing, Utilities, Bay Area, Affordable Housing, California Budget Problems, Low-Income Housing, Hercules California, California Budget Crisis, Municipal Debt, San Francisco News

Reporters Bob Porterfield and Jackie Ginley are exploring the financial challenges facing Hercules for The Huffington Post and Hercules Patch. Read th...

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From Local Officials To Wall Street Blame For County Bankruptcy Casts Wide Net

Posted 01.11.2012

Read More: Jefferson-County-Bankruptcy, Video, Municipal Bonds, Jefferson County, Jefferson County Alabama, Business News, Municipal Bankruptcy, Sewer Systems, Municipal Debt, Municipalities, Business News

From corrupt and incompetent local officials to Wall Street's credit crisis and toxic bonds, there was plenty of blame to go around on Thursday, a...

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Hercules Municipal Utility Has Drained City Coffers

HuffingtonPost.com | Jackie Ginley | Posted 10.16.2011

Read More: Hercules Municipal Utility, California Budget Problems, California Public Utilities Commision, Municipal Bonds, California Municipal Bonds, Utility Costs, Utilities, Hercules California, California Budget Crisis, Municipal Utilities, Municipal Debt, Bay Area, San Francisco News

Reporters Bob Porterfield and Jackie Ginley are exploring the financial challenges facing Hercules for The Huffington Post and Hercules Patch. HERC...

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Insurers Can Manage U.S. Municipal Bonds, Moody's Says

Posted 09.07.2011

Read More: Institutional Investors, Federal Reserve, Municipal Bonds, Moodys Munis, US Public Sector, Insurance Companies, Municipal Securities, Moodys Investors Service, Business News

Stresses in the U.S. public sector have not put property and casualty insurance companies at great risk, despite the firms' considerable exposure ...

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Meredith Whitney Doubles Down on Wrong

Charles Gasparino | Posted 08.08.2011

Read More: Munis, Meredith Whitney, Municipal Bonds, Municipal Debt, Defaults, Municipal Bond Default, Recession, Business News

Meredith Whitney is quickly becoming known more for what she's gotten wrong than for what she's gotten right. Her latest claims about municipal bond defaults will only extend this trend.

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'NO MORE DEBT': Municipal Bond Issuance Down By Half This Year

HuffingtonPost.com | William Alden | Posted 08.03.2011

Read More: Meredith Whitney, Infrastructure, Municipal Bonds, California, Build America Bonds, Economic Crisis, Business News, Illinois, Municipal Debt, Municipal-Debt-Crisis, Business News

NEW YORK -- As cities and states struggle with historic budget shortfalls, governments have put one item squarely in the cross-hairs: their debt. R...

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States Look To Mom And Pop Investors For Funds

HuffingtonPost.com | William Alden | Posted 07.18.2011

Read More: State-Bonds, Municipal Bonds, California, Bond Yields, Treasury, Economic Crisis, Business News, Vermont, Retail Bonds California, Retail Bonds Massachusetts, California-Bonds, Massachusetts, Municipal Debt, Retail Investors, Business News

As California works to repair its budget, the state treasury is ramping up its effort to reach an unusual type of bond investor: regular people. A ...

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DGA Chair Martin O'Malley: GOP Risking National Default To Deny Obama Second Term

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 07.11.2011

Read More: Treasury Department, Debt Ceiling Governors, Omalley Debt Ceiling, Municipal Bonds, Debt Ceiling, States, Martin O'Malley, Democratic Governors, Tim Geithner, Omalley Dga, Extraordinary Measures, Municipal Debt, Cities, O'malley Boehner, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- With states and cities already suffering the consequences of the nation creeping toward hitting the legal debt limit, one Democratic gov...

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Whitney Defends Bond Default Prediction As Market Improves

The Huffington Post | William Alden | Posted 07.05.2011

Read More: Taxes, Meredith Whitney, Goldman Sachs, Municipal Bonds, Milken Global Conference, Municipal-Bond-Default, Economic Crisis, Meredith-Whitney-Advisory-Group, Business News, Cities, Video, Business News

Even as the municipal bond market shows signs of recovery, analyst Meredith Whitney stood by her controversial prediction of widespread defaults. S...

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As Treasury Prevents Default, 'Headache' For Cities, States Begins

HuffingtonPost.com | William Alden | Posted 07.04.2011

Read More: Treasury Department, Municipal Bonds, States, Debt Ceiling, Tim Geithner, Economic Crisis, Business News, Timothy Geithner, Extraordinary Measures, Municipal Debt, Cities, Business News

NEW YORK -- As the federal government approaches its legal debt ceiling and scrambles to avoid default, the first losers will be cities and states. ...

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Why Bankers Want a Muni Bond Taxpayer Bailout

Chriss Street | Posted 06.03.2011

Read More: Municipal Bonds, Municipal Debt, Bailouts, Business News

I believe Jamie Dimon's new-found honesty about the risks of municipal bond defaults is part of a strategy to convince Congress to once again saddle taxpayers with a bailout of state and local government.

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The Right Picks Up Meredith Whitney's Frayed Banner

Charles Gasparino | Posted 05.28.2011

Read More: Meredith Whitney, Municipal Bonds, Municipal Debt, Business News

The American right is now using Meredith Whitney's increasingly absurd claims of imminent municipal Armageddon to further its agenda of quashing the power of government unions.

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Is Meredith Whitney Flip-Flopping or Stalling?

Charles Gasparino | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Munis, Meredith Whitney, Municipal Bonds, Municipal Debt, Business News

In nine months, when defaults are less than half of what Meredith Whitney suggested, she will be taking credit for sounding the alarm bells, and forcing public officials to make the hard choices and avoid default.

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When Cities Struggle, Workers Punished -- But Bondholders Spared

HuffingtonPost.com | William Alden | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Counties, Municipal Bonds, Workers, Economic Crisis, Government Bonds, Layoffs, Mark Zandi, David Kotok, Municipal Bond Default, James Spiotto, State and Local Government, Business News, Cities, Business News

NEW YORK -- As cities across the nation struggle to balance their budgets, a chorus of experts has told investors to take cover. Economists, analys...

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State Budget Woes Unlikely To Be Fixed In Washington

The Huffington Post | William Alden | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Layoffs, State Budgets, Municipal Bonds, Build America Bonds, States, State Budget Crisis, Economic Crisis, Business News, Public Workers, Municipal Debt, Business News

Even as widening state budget deficits are becoming a potential stumbling block for economic recovery, Federal assistance seems unlikely. With Washin...

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SEC Probing Mutual Funds Over Muni Bonds

Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sec, Municipal Bonds, State Debt, Mutual Funds, Muni Bonds, Business, Securities and Exchange Commission, Muni Debt, Business News

U.S. securities regulators are probing whether some mutual funds have overstated the value of thinly traded risky municipal bonds at a time when ...

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Hedge Funds Are Buying More Muni Bonds

CNBC | Kate Kelly | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Business News, Municipal Bonds, Hedge Funds, Moore Capital Management, Hedge Fund Muni Bonds, Business News

A spike in yields and a desire to diversify portfolios is prompting some unusual investors to jump into the municipal bond market, say traders and ana...

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DPS Says No to Former Governor of Federal Reserve

Christopher Scott | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Tom Boasberg, Financial Crisis, Mary Seawell, Municipal Bonds, Denver News, Denver Public Schools, Denver News

On Sunday night, two members of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education met to determine a path forward for receiving independent financial couns...

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Why Meredith Whitney's Muni Prediction Doesn't Add Up

Charles Gasparino | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Meredith Whitney, Municipal Bonds, Business News

Meredith Whitney made her prediction of 50-100 municipal bond defaults in the next year nearly 6 weeks ago, and since then the market has experienced a total of one default, totaling just $6 million.

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Muni Bonds: Matt Taibbi's* Antidote to Meredith Whitney

Janet Tavakoli | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Matt Taibbi, Meredith Whitney, Municipal Bonds, Muni Bonds, Meredith Whitney 60 Minutes, Business News

Meredith Whitney's unsupported claim on 60 Minutes gives muni-problem-deniers ammunition to claim there is no substance to the argument that there are serious problems with certain muni bonds.

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The Other Debt Problem

AP | BERNARD CONDON | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Economic Crisis, State and Local Government, Municipal Bond Bust, Muni Bonds, Municipal Bonds, Business News

NEW YORK — It's the other U.S. debt problem. States are scrambling to close $114 billion in budget shortfalls over the next year and a half. Fo...

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