Anyone involved in muni's?

Is the muni bond market about to blow up?

When there is turmoil in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market, as there has been this year, America's mayors get very nervous....

If the bankruptcy goes forward, a big question for the judge to settle will be who has first dibs on Detroit's assets: its bondholders or its retirees? Any eventual ruling on the subject could influence the potential bankruptcy plans of other troubled municipalities and spook muni bondholders.

"This is a big deal," said George Friedlander, chief municipal strategist with Citicorp Investment Research and Analysis. Mayor Smith of the Conference of Mayors added, "If all of the sudden a retiree's medical benefits are on an equal stage or even take precedence over bondholders, you can well imagine that would certainly have a chilling effect on the municipal market."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101172823

RW, I am not involved in munis but if you are this should help. A long time ago I tried to sell munis to an insurance co. The fiduciary criteria was triple A insured. No idea what the criteria would be today.

"Across the 50 states, the Bloomberg Muni team has collected the government financial statistics and adjudged the most (and least) under-funded pension plans. Wisconsin is least under-funded with a 99.91% funding ratio (beaten by the District of Columbia's 'over-funding' at 106.92%) with Illinois the most under-funded at a measly 40.37% funding ratio"...




http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-0 ... er%3C/i%3E

Hey Bob, thanks for the chart. Munis only make sense to me if your tax bracket is up there.

Blue Horseshoe loves Blue Star Airlines. Shhhhhh!

:rofllol

I can't see munis as being all that attractive ---- eventually interest rates will go up ---- and when that happens, the value of fixed-income investments will go down quickly.

Only bond I'd look at is a convertible.