Bonds

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he thinks the U.S. central bank can still achieve a soft landing, with inflation returning to the Fed’s 2% target without triggering a significant downturn. “Yes, the economy could go into recession, but that’s not the base case,” Bullard told the Economic Club of Minneapolis

Wells Fargo’s role as senior manager in a potential $500 million bond sale for the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is under review after the bank landed on the state treasurer’s list of companies banned from government contracts.  The 13 financial institutions on the list released Wednesday were determined to be boycotting the oil and gas industry

Municipals improved Thursday while outflows from municipal bond mutual funds rose to more than $800 million. U.S. Treasuries were better on bonds five years and in and equities ended down as more news of troubled regional banks and the continued debt ceiling standoff in Washington hangs over markets. Triple-A benchmarks were firmer, with yields falling

Illinois lawmakers are being urged to slow down as they consider pension mandates for Chicago that Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration warns could add $3 billion to the city’s long-term payment tab for its firefighters’ fund. The legislation raises benefits for employees hired beginning in 2011 when a Tier 2 pension system was established. Pension experts

The Municipal Forum of New York honored both new and old hands of public finance at its 32nd Annual Awards Dinner Wednesday at Manhattan’s Marriott Marquis hotel. Portia Lee, managing director of public finance for the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, presented the first of four awards, the Carey Gabay Scholarship, to outgoing high school senior Jahin

Economists warned of the dangers of the ongoing debt limit standoff at a Senate hearing Thursday highlighting what Democrats say would be the painful outcome if a recently passed Republican House debt limit and spending bill becomes law. Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service released a report Thursday outlining the impact on various credits of different debt

Part two of a two-part series. Case Study: water and sewer systemsWater and sewer maintenance and development is the domain of localities. The federal government has not been involved in a centralized and systematic fashion since around 1980. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that about $472.6 billion will be needed for water system

Local governments with 150,000 or fewer residents who need help applying for grants available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act are getting a new tool in June. The Local Infrastructure Hub, a partnership of several organizations, will offer a series of workshops focused on highway-rail crossing improvements, drinking water systems, broadband planning, local infrastructure

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered parties in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bankruptcy to attend a hearing to address their lack of mediation sessions to reach a deal. The hearing exclusively about mediation scheduled for Monday will be the first Swain has called in the nearly six-year long bankruptcy. She has said

The nation’s housing cost and availability crisis — particularly acute in California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii — has those states’ governors throwing everything they can at the problem in the hope of knocking it down. All four states face the dual issues of a shortage of affordable housing and entrenched homelessness, the latter of which

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Treasury’s request for a rehearing of the court’s decision barring the federal government from enforcing its Offset Provision against Tennessee due to compliance issues being unconstitutionally burdensome. That’s the latest in the multi-state battle against Treasury’s Offset Provision, which many states argue is a way for the

Oklahoma’s state treasurer tagged three of the nation’s largest investment banks as fossil fuel industry boycotters, making them ineligible to do business, including municipal bond underwriting, with the state and local governments. Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America are on an initial list released Wednesday of 13 financial institutions determined to be

Looking at the market’s choppiness and heavy supply, Columbus decided last week to push of its new money and refunding to this week, but little did officials know that the U.S. Treasury would throw a curve ball by suspending the sale of State and Local Government Series securities. City Auditor Megan Kilgore said the city’s

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bondholders’ request she certify their appeal of her decision they have no lien on the bankrupt authority’s revenues. While bondholders could continue their appeal, without Swain’s certification it is less likely to be heard by the appeals court, said Puerto Rico Attorney

Municipals were mostly steady Wednesday while U.S. Treasury yields rallied on the short end following the Federal Open Market Committee decision to raise a quarter point, with language that may hint at a pause. Equities were mixed. In his press conference, Chair Jerome Powell stressed the panel’s commitment to lowering inflation and spoke of the

The fiscal health of two major Midwest cities would take divergent paths under tax-related legislation being pursued at their state capitals. The Missouri House this week approved and sent to the Senate legislation that would strip St. Louis of its ability to collect an earnings tax on remote work. In Wisconsin, the legislature’s GOP majority

Bankers, investors and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have no appetite for playing games with the U.S. debt ceiling. “We need to have the debt ceiling raised quickly with close to $30 trillion in debt at risk,” Mnuchin said at one panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this week. The three-day

As politicians and legislators attempt to reign in the appeal of municipal bonds that fund ESG-friendly endeavors, the market is mostly ignoring them. Data from academia, rating agencies, consultants and buyers indicates that appearing to do good still has an upside despite an apparently increasing backlash against ESG labeling in states such as Florida. “While

It’s official. No municipal bonds will be able to be issued in the state of Florida under the environmental, social or governance label or by using an ESG bond verifier. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed the bill passed last week by the Legislature that bans the issuance of municipal bonds using ESG precepts. House

The Oklahoma House gave final approval Tuesday to a bill that would give as much as $250 million a year in tax credits to parents or guardians of children attending private schools, but will be a big hit to the state budget. The House will not send the measure to the governor for enactment until

Complimentary access to top ideas and insights — curated by our editors. A long-awaited extension and renewal of the Northeast Corridor rail link, a proposed bullet train connecting Portland and Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding for a number of large bridge projects around the country are among the