Muni Think

Calculations of the impact on municipal yields of tax rate cuts are a simplification of how prices are set in bond markets and should not be relied upon.

The IRS's Final Regulations represent a departure from current rules that will affect long-held practices for issuers, underwriters and financial advisors.

The president-elect would finance his trillion dollar plan through tax credits, bypassing state and local governments, and may move to tax the interest on their municipal bonds.

Among the more influential swing states, Trump claimed Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida – all states with low Geo Scores, which rate economic health on a scale of 1 to 10.

Here are some of the key "known unknowns" — factors that are likely to affect valuations and creditworthiness and functioning in the state and local finance sector — as the Trump Administration and Congress sort them out.

While this election seems less about the economy and policy and more about insults, who knows, maybe the direction of the economy over the past year in swing states can offer some insight.

The worst is yet to come in the SEC's enforcement of municipal disclosure efforts, and it will be very costly for the issuers who missed the boat.

The only two things that Presidential candidates seem to agree on are that their opponent is a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the U.S. must make significant investments in our crumbling infrastructure.

The private sector might be willing to carry risk the public sector doesn’t want, or provide capital sooner than the public sector capacity allows, but these benefits come at a cost, and sometimes that cost is hard to measure.

This week we cover two quite different topics, starting with the most recent FEMA data regarding Hurricane Matthew. Then, in an attempt to move us beyond the "Sex, Lies and Audiotape" conversation that is occupying the minds of many Americans, we take a closer look at the importance of exports, employment and wages on the economy.