local government

States and local governments cannot rely on the Federal Reserve to print money. As they face financial difficulties not seen since the 1930s, this is significant. We see the consequence of this difference on display daily in the sovereign…

By Kevin Brekke, Editor, Casey Research Prior to the 1930s, it was not legally possible for a U.S. municipality to declare bankruptcy as no legislation existed covering this event. The growing number of insolvent towns during the 1930s…

The deal between President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership is not likely to have a significant positive effect on an economy facing severe headwinds pulling in a negative direction. The key fact to remember is that we are…

Undaunted by falling municipal bond prices, rising yields, and withdrawal of funds, research reports by large brokerage firms still mollify the majority of clients and fund managers with numbers and assertions: "General obligation bonds do…

The decision by EU Commissioner Olli Rehn to appear before the world's press today, and inform the assembled throngs that, as far as the EU Commission could see, Spain will not be sticking to its 6% of GDP fiscal deficit commitment next…

This is something that we were talking about last November: Bond insurer Ambac Financial has warned bankruptcy is a distinct possibility, sending its shares plummeting more than 30% today. What is intriguing about this pending…

Much ink, real and virtual, has been spilled over the last few days on the macro and micro of the election, QE2, global central banking activities, competitive currency strategies and asset-price targeting. We’re going to give that a rest…

Good interview on Bloomberg with David Blanchflower. He thinks the US is going to manipulate its exchange rate by printing a bunch of dollars, leading to currency revulsion and selling of dollars. Meanwhile everyone else is fixated on…

A few months ago I was running through some out of the box thinking for how the Fed might be able to give quantitative easing more of an impact. Not that I think the Fed should go QE, but if they do, the question is what should they do.…

Christopher Mier, municipal strategist and managing director at Loop Capital Markets LLC, talked to Bloomberg's Betty Liu this past Friday about Meredith Whitney's report stating that the U.S. federal government may have to bail out some…