Public finance

Ambac says that PROMESA is against the Constitution's call for uniform bankruptcy codes.

The city has suffered tax and economic blows from COVID-19 but has weathered the impacts with adjustments to its roughly $1 billion budget.

Hempstead, N.Y., Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr., talks about the town’s receipt of $133 million of CARES Act federal funding and the subsequent credit rating upgrade by Moody’s during the COVID-19 pandemic. He speaks about how the town’s conservative budgeting helps bolster its financial position during tough economic times. Andrew Coen hosts (24 minutes).

A new policy framework supports “enhanced bond financing incentives that can be used to improve water quality and reduce other environmental stressors.”

The Muni New Issue Upload Form was created to expand access to additional deal participants and streamline the submission process for the forward calendar.

Municipals were little changed Monday as participants await the larger new-issue calendar while equities and U.S. Treasuries react to news out of Washington and COVID-19 ravages the globe.

As issuance rose in 2020, so did municipal bond insurance usage, with $34.167 billion wrapped, or 7.5% insured total issuance from almost 5.7% in 2019.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi says Francisco Rodríguez Dosal is experienced in the construction and infrastructure industry.

The employment report showed 140,000 decline in nonfarm payrolls in December, but economists found some positives in the numbers.

The state will sell $182.2 million of highly rated general obligation bonds in three separate offerings.

Even with the November increase, General Fund Revenues collected from July to November were 5% below those of 2019.

It was inevitable that muni yields would need to rise somewhat as the UST 10-year broke above 1%, however participants said the supply/demand imbalance will keep munis from rising as quickly as Treasuries. More than $1 billion inflows reported.

John Hallacy, founder of John Hallacy Consulting LLC, talks about the most important opportunities and challenges the municipal bond market will face in 2021. He gives his estimate on where muni volume may be headed, discusses the possibility of a federal infrastructure program and talks about what to expect under a Biden Administration. Chip Barnett hosts. (Recorded Dec. 22; 22 minutes)

Three of seven board members will be from the original group.

FOMC members backed maintaining asset purchases, although “a couple” were “open” to “weighting purchases of Treasury securities toward longer maturities,” according to minutes released Wednesday.

Some economists say the changes, such as a rise in minimum wage, would be a negative for the local economy.

The South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority’s RecoverSC program has up to $100 million in total bonding authority.

The growth in issuance in 2020 spread out over the top 10 underwriters, with bulge-bracket firms sharing the wealth.

Without the benefit of a larger new-issue calendar, secondary trading is likely to continue the theme of the final two months of 2020: more bidders than bonds.

From the Centennials to the COVID generation, the municipal market's demographics will change dramatically in the next decade as will the way investors view investing in munis.