The Short Version Remember when muni bond insurance was supposedly bulletproof? Well, those days are gone Bond insurers went from heroes to zeros in the municipal market Only about 10%…
Muni bond defaults moved past $4 billion from January thru September 2009 driven partly by the bursting of the real estate bubble which in turn triggered defaults in “Special Assessment”…
In mid August, the bond section of the Charles Schwab brokerage Web site said a representative ten-year, single-A muni yielded 5.9%, and a ten-year, triple-A yielded 4.1%. But when you…
In terms of safety, governors and state treasurers argue, GO state debt should be equivalent to Treasury bonds, or at least triple-A-rated corporate bonds. Although states can’t print their own…
Reading thru Jeffrey R. Kosnett column from Kiplinger “Beyond bond ratings”, (Oct 7, 2009 )
Would you want to own muni bond that hasn’t been given a sniff test for 20 years? Imagine investing in a municipal bond that hasn’t been evaluated in two decades….