Bonds

A year-long dispute over nine Puerto Rico-based investment funds that hold municipal securities has intensified over the past few weeks, raising issues of disclosure, investment fund shareholder voting, and Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. Puerto Rico-based Ocean Capital said it is trying to gain control of several tax-free Puerto Rico-based income funds through fairly electing

Municipals were steady to firmer in spots in secondary trading as a large revenue bond offering from the New York City Transitional Finance Authority took the focus and saw yields lowered in a repricing. U.S. Treasuries improved on rising recession concerns while equities ended nearly flat. Municipals underperformed the moves to lower yields in UST,

When it comes to investing along environmental, social and governance principles, West Virginia’s Treasurer Riley Moore has two words for it — “coercive capitalism.” Moore said he has been standing behind the state’s coal, oil and natural gas industries, which play a major role in the state’s economy, since the day he’s been elected. Moore,

Bond default and impairment is famously low in the municipal bond market. But the case of Paradise, California, offers an example of the rising financial risks posed by climate and management decisions. After the city was nearly destroyed in 2018 by California’s deadliest wildfire to date, the state stepped in to help the city’s redevelopment

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, recently tapped to head up the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ newly created public-private partnership task force, thinks now is the perfect time for cities to consider P3s for their infrastructure projects. “The Biden administration is really doing a lot for cities right now,” Dickens said. The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and

Municipals were lightly traded and little changed steady Monday, while U.S. Treasury yields rose and equities ended in the red. With the muni triple-A yield curve unchanged out long, and UST seeing small losses, ratios dipped below 100% on the 30-year. Muni-UST ratios were at 69% in five years, 87% in 10 years and 98%

The Texas Supreme Court breathed life into a controversial and costly project that aims to be the nation’s first bullet train Friday when it ruled the company has the power of eminent domain. The 5-3 ruling comes amid financial uncertainty for Texas Central, the private entity developing the $30 billion project, whose CEO and top

Municipals were little changed in a quiet summer Friday session ahead of a larger new-issue calendar and the final week of a volatile month, while U.S. Treasuries were weaker and equities rallied. Triple-A yield curves were mostly flat to a basis point or two stronger in spots while UST were weaker with larger losses on

Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura Taylor Swain this week approved key Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority bankruptcy documents and dates, moving the plan closer to confirmation with a final hearing set for mid-August. Swain filed her order Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico, approving the Oversight Board-proposed disclosure statement, ballots, and

States using American Rescue Plan Act federal aid for revenue replacement could face fiscal cliffs in the years to come. That’s according to Beverly Bunch, professor at the School of Public Management and Policy at the University of Illinois-Springfield, speaking on the Volcker Alliance and Penn Institute for Urban Research’s special briefing on how states

Karl K. Klessig, an investor who two years ago sought to acquire the former Golden Pacific Bancorp in Sacramento, California, was banned from the banking industry for providing a fraudulent loan document and forged signature in his application, the Federal Reserve Board said Friday. “Klessig’s deceptive conduct in connection with his effort to acquire control

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said she expects the central bank to raise interest rates to levels that restrain the economy, though it’s not clear how much further policy makers will need to go to bring down hot inflation. The central bank, which raised interest rates by 75 basis points this

The small size of most of America’s municipal governments may once have offered them anonymity and a degree of safety from hackers seeking bigger ransomware payouts from larger organizations. That dynamic is changing and cybercriminals, balancing risk and reward in a shifting security landscape, have found local governments a path of low resistance for smaller

After wrapping up his final deal, Wisconsin Capital Finance Director David Erdman is packing up an office filled with three decades of paperwork as his tenure with the state winds down and he makes the leap to the private sector at Baker & Tilly Municipal Advisors LLC. There’s also a “retirement” party to attend Thursday

Six months into the roll out of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, inflation, coupled with chronically high cost of building U.S. transportation projects, is proving to be the biggest challenge. And the longer it takes to spend the money, the more cost pressures threaten to swallow the once-in-a-generation level of funding. “Externally our biggest

Constructive secondary trading and an active primary pushed triple-A muni yields lower on the back of a U.S. Treasury flight-to-safety rally after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged for the first time that it was “certainly a possibility” the U.S. economy may face a recession as the Fed continues to contend with inflation. “Inflation has

Alabama vowed last year it would go forward with a project to build two new prisons and next week it plans to fulfill its promise to do it, even as it jettisoned the controversial private-prison model that caused it so much grief. The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority will price $725 million of tax-exempt revenue

Moody’s Investors Service boosted Denver International Airport’s bond ratings a notch ahead of a $1.84 billion sale for its current capital plan. The senior revenue bond rating was raised to Aa3 from A1 and the rating on subordinate revenue bonds was upgraded to A1 from A2, affecting about $5.2 billion of outstanding debt.  “The ratings

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the risk of a recession in the U.S. economy is increasing, and that it will take several years to return to the central bank’s 2% inflation goal. The Fed will need to see “compelling evidence” in month-to-month data that price pressures are easing before it is

The former chief administrative officer of Johnson City, Texas falsified financial statements and misled investors in an attempt to hide his ongoing embezzlement of city funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Thursday. Michael Anthony Holland, who was also Johnson City’s secretary, stole $1.12 million from the city between 2015 and 2020, using the money