Month: September 2008

The good news is that despite increasing pressure on both revenues and expenses, Standard and Poor’s has affirmed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s “A” rating, with a stable outlook. Read More

With a budget shortfall of $12.5 billion projected for 2009-10, New York's state government faces its most significant fiscal crisis in decades. However, this is not just another cyclical downturn. What's left of Wall Street will be significantly leaner, less profitable, and more heavily regulated than the securities industry whose explosive growth fueled the expansion of state spending for much of the past 25 years. The Empire Center and the Center for Governmental Research explored these issues at a policy forum in Albany. Read More

States and cities hoping to fill in budget gaps with cash-outs of future toll-road revenues and the like by handing revenue-generating assets over to private operators for up-front money may be sobered up by a report out yesterday from Australi Read More

The analysts at Municipal Market Advisors think that should Sen. Barack Obama win tonight, President Obama's planned income-tax hike on individual households earning over $250k could push up demand for tax-exempt municipal bonds. Read More

Swiss bank UBS has attracted $1.5 billion to its new global infrastructure fund. "John Fraser, chairman and chief executive office of the UBS AG's funds arm, said ... he was encouraged by the demand from long-term institutional investors, including p Read More

Harvard's Ed Glaeser, also a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, and Wharton's Joseph Gyourko have an (free registration required) of the likely futility of proposed government efforts to stop the slide in housing prices. The profs specifically Read More

Even as states and municipalities face unprecedented capital-markets pressure as they try to issue new debt, Standard and Poor's currenty has no states on ratings-watch negative, or even with a negative outlook. Read More