How many municipal defaults

For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at or visit www. We've detected you are on Internet Explorer. For the best Barrons. Google Firefox. Subscribe Now. Text size. Garphil Julien is a research associate at the Open Markets Institute. Thank you This article has been sent to. Privacy Notice. Cookie Notice. Copyright Policy.

Data Policy. Your Ad Choices. Barron's Archive. Corporate Subscriptions. All Rights Reserved. It has been aided in part over the last couple of years by growth and economic recovery in many regions of the U. For the fourth year running, in , muni bond rating upgrades outweighed downgrades vs. Further, at the end of , the median rating for U. This stood in stark contrast to the median rating for global corporates, which was Baa2 Baa3.

We continue to argue that, while it remains a struggle to obtain the same amount of timely disclosure from issuers of municipal bonds as one sees in other asset classes, the pure empirical evidence suggests that muni bonds still offer a fiscally sound vehicle for deriving an income stream free from federal, and in some cases, state taxes.

There are more than 50, different state and local governments and other issuing authorities. There are, as always, caveats. The sector continues to face challenges. Despite this, we still believe that municipal bonds remain important to the core strategy of constructing an individual portfolio.

Source: US municipal bond defaults and recoveries, The Tell Municipal defaults are creeping up, suggesting more bondholder pain to come Published: Oct. ET By Andrea Riquier. GE is breaking up, but it wants a bunch of its debt back first Doubting that we could be in a stock-market bubble? Andrea Riquier. Dow Jones. Coronavirus Resources. Should You Get a Booster? To Read the Full Story. Subscribe Sign In.