The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released its much-anticipated Report on the Municipal Securities Market, including recommendations to help improve its transparency. According to the SEC press release, “the report is a culmination of an extensive...
Month: July 2012
Which U.S. States Are Poised for the Greatest Population Growth?
by guest contributor, Peter Fugiel, Ph.D. Perhaps the single most important characteristic of the U.S. population in the 21st century is its rapid growth, expected to continue for at least the next two decades. As the trend continues, the most impressive story is in...
Metro Area Growth Spurs Infrastructure Needs
By the end of 2012, 300 of the nation’s 363 metro areas will experience real economic growth, according to a new economic report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors at their Summer Leadership meeting earlier this week. And that’s good news, because, as the...
Demystifying the High Yield Municipal Bond Market
“For most investors, the mere mention of high yield recalls the high-risk, speculative “junk bonds” of the Michael Milken era and its well-documented excesses. In the municipal arena, high yield also means higher risk, but the term encompasses a much broader class of...
The Bond Buyer Delivers – News is Just the Beginning
From rating agency actions to political developments, issuance trends, and fiscal challenges, The Bond Buyer has reported on the municipal bond industry through its peaks and valleys - as well as through the evolution of information delivery. For more than 100 years,...
May Employment Data – Which Metro Areas Fared Best? Worst?
Lafayette, Louisiana led the nation in annual percentage gains in employment in May 2012, up 10.5 percent from a year earlier, according to recently released Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Columbus,...