Public finance

Bel Air Investment Advisors is Hightower's 14th and largest acquisition in a year, with $8 billion of assets under management including $2.8 billion of municipals.

Paul Herman and Adam Mason of HIP Investor examine environmental, social and governance risks, ratings disconnects, transparency needs and HIP's deep dive into hospital systems. Paul Burton hosts. Recorded Dec. 14. (25 minutes).

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans says monetary policy will need to remain “accommodative for quite a while,” since inflation won’t hit a 2% average for “a long time.”

The new-issue calendar builds from almost nothing to $2.4 billion in the first week of the New Year, with deals ranging from education to taxables to social bonds on tap for investors.

The deal is rated BBB-plus by Fitch Ratings, Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and BBB by S&P Global Ratings.

After one of the worst sell-offs in municipal market history as COVID-19 began its rampage in March, the market rebounded to set the all-time record.

Dominick D'Eramo, head of fixed income at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors, talks with Chip Barnett about how the municipal bond market did in 2020 and what may be on tap for munis in the new year. (12 minutes)

Budget watchdogs and others say the city must do more than just muddle through.

Municipal bond funds saw $2.086 billion of inflows in the week ended Dec. 22, the Investment Company Institute reported Wednesday after a $2.517 billion inflow the week prior.

Moody's says the coronvirus' economic impact adds to fiscal pressures on several of the state's cities dependent on oil and gas revenue

The bi-state agency may face further cuts to its capital program after receiving no funds in the second round of federal coronavirus relief.

While there are no major sales on the calendar for this week, some larger deals from and Texas, California, New Jersey and Colorado issuers are on tap for the first few weeks of 2021.

Chicago Public Schools will get more than it budgeted for from the federal emergency relief bill; the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority got a bit less.

New York State fiscal control board asks Long Island county to create contingency plan for confronting future deficits as a requirement for its new $3.3 billion budget.

Refinitiv Lipper reported tax-exempt mutual funds saw $1.288 billion of inflows in the week ended Dec. 23, the seventh week in a row investors put cash into the funds.

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded America's largest township one notch to Aa1 from Aa2 citing strong reserve levels during the COVID-19 pandemic bolstered by federal aid.

The president-elect takes a much more expansively realistic view on the synergistic relationship between infrastructure investment and the middle class.

IHS Ipreo estimates the week's bond volume at $7.3 million in a calendar composed only of small negotiated deals.

A record year of overall issuance, led by a boom in taxables, tells the story of a growing muni market with a broader, more diverse investor base.

Bankruptcy judge Swain barred the government from implementing and enforcing the revenue and spending laws the Oversight Board had challenged.