Muni Think

The orders provide some insight into what the Securities and Exchange Commission considers to be a material false or misleading statement in an offering document.

Restructuring the debt of Chicago and Illinois would entail about two years of unpleasant headlines, but the city and the state will rebound far sooner and less painfully than if they stay on their current paths.

The Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative was a particularly imaginative enforcement solution directed toward a very specific disclosure issue.

Attempts to boil down state government fiscal performance into bite size chunks can be Quixotic exercises, fraught with data problems and ripe for misinterpretation.

Puerto Rico's addiction to debt is not unlike that of an abuser to alcohol or drugs, so perhaps it is time for Puerto Rico to undertake a 12-Step Program, aided by the new financial control board.

While there is something wild about callable premium bonds, fortunately there may be a way to tame them.

Underhanded pay-to-play practices may come back in play.

Not enough has been done to provide municipal issuers, obligated parties and underwriters the clarity sought and needed by the market.

In the past 3½ years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has asserted its enforcement role considerably, in what can fairly be described as a form of direct regulation of issuers.

Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Michigan have shown significant improvement in economic health over the past year, while some stronger states have been underperforming.