Muni Think

The next phase of pension risk analysis will be different and more challenging: Assessing the long-term impacts of individual jurisdictions’ choices in the context of their unique workforce demographics, benefits and salary structure, and pension funding status.

Even though the report has been publicly available for more than two years, the Oversight Board is still asked the perennial question: Why didn't we audit the debt? We did.

Our national debt has risen by more than 40% in the past four years, and as we begin to recover from the pandemic, inflation could become more apparent in consumer prices.

New York State’s public sector entities have more than $300 billion of unfunded other post-employment benefit liabilities, which accounts for a quarter of the nation’s total of $1.2 trillion of other post-employment benefit debt.

Political uncertainty will elevate bond price volatility for those issuers more dependent on fiscal support. Still, the broader market will benefit from support for education, transportation, and healthcare sectors.

Responsible, limited changes in the tax code and IRS regulations could go a long way toward economic recovery where needed most to deal with the pandemic.

The effects of COVID-19 on Puerto Rico are severe and the island's capacity to repay its debt has changed. The Oversight Board's objectives in the debt-restructuring process, however, have not.

Our municipal impact strategy will continue to refrain from investing in school districts that are not actively, urgently and aggressively acting to identify and thwart violence against students.

Lack of female representation is a systemic issue in the financial services industry, made worse by COVID-19. We should use these pandemic lessons to balance scales that have been tilted for much too long.

While no FOMC action on monetary policy is expected, markets are watching for how the Federal Reserve partners with the Biden administration and how it reacts to the 10-year Treasury yield rising from 0.52% on Aug. 4 to 1.15% on Jan. 14.