The Public Purse offers you serious thinking about economic, financial and political trends at the U.S. state and local level with a focus on municipal credit risk
CAT | bond insurance
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California Cities and Bankruptcy
1 Comment | Posted by Natalie Cohen in bankruptcy and default, bond insurance, cities, municipal bonds
See this post on Reuters for discussion about Antioch, latest city in California to talk bankruptcy. There is a bill, sponsored by state senator Mendoza, AB155, that would require cities to go through the state (via the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, CDIAC). The bill was referred last week by the Senate appropriations committee [...]
2
Xenia Defaults, the USDA, Bond Insurance and Novation
3 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in bankruptcy and default, bond insurance, municipal bonds
Add Xenia Rural Water District’s to the short but growing list of over-leveraged municipal borrowers. With $143 million in debt and about 9,000 customers, the unfolding socio-gram includes bondholders, bond insurers CIFG and Assured Guaranty, the US Department of Agriculture, Bank of America, and last, but not least, the ratepayers. A $5.2 million note to [...]
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Municipal Market Meltdown? Response to Bookstaber
5 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in Budget and Finance, Voter initiatives, bankruptcy and default, bond insurance, housing mess, municipal bonds, pensions, securities lending, states
We have two opposing camps in the muni-market at the moment: those who say it is the next systemic shoe to drop and the rating agencies that are systemically raising ratings.
Which is right?
We have moved from a market that has had heavy intermediation from the bond insurance companies to one where investors are on their [...]
14
Prichard, Alabama fails to pay retirees
1 Comment | Posted by Natalie Cohen in bankruptcy and default, bond insurance
The check is not in the mail. Prichard, Alabama, came out of Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2002 and promised to make deposits into its public pension fund. They didn’t and now they are simply out of money. Retirees did not get their October 1 payment. What’s next? The retirees are suing. The city is looking [...]
12
Insured, but non-rated municipal bonds
3 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in bond insurance
In the aftermath of the bond insurance meltdown investors found that many of their holdings did not have an underlying rating. Most are small borrowings and in smaller, lower profile communities across the U.S. landscape. Among them are some gems that are navigating the difficult waters of the great recession. However, there are also some [...]