Posts tagged 'build america bonds'

Build America Bonds, redux

| May 19 2011 21:42 | Comment |

John Bellows, Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, has a post on the US treasury blog calling for the reintroduction of Build America Bonds. It’s quite interesting — honest.

Babs expired in December 2010, but the President’s FY2012 budget asks for their reintroduction. They were popular. There were 2,275 separate issues totaling $181bn, $30bn more than the total grants given to state and local governments also included as part of the Recovery Act. Read more

Good luck, Mr Gross

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Dec 15 2010 09:36 | Comment |

Pimco’s Bill Gross last week poured $4.4m of his own money into the municipal bond market in the States — which would be, you know, that thing that’s been tanking ever since the Build America Bond programme looked set to expire.

Here’s the stuff he’s been buying: Read more

Muni yields pressured again

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Dec 14 2010 09:15 | Comment |

Yields on long-term municipal bonds have risen to the highest levels in more than a year as the market grapples with the likely removal of the Build America Bonds subsidy, the FT reports. Moves to amend tax cuts legislation to extend the program via a lower subsidy rate may not be included in a final Senate vote on Tuesday. Longer-maturity muni bonds have particularly suffered because these issues would return to the traditional tax-exempt market if taxable BABs fall, the WSJ says. But institutional investors may be looking for value even as retail investors abandon the market: a SEC filing shows that Bill Gross of Pimco bought shares in five of his firm’s muni bond funds recently, the Journal adds. Read more

Europe’s America bonds

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Dec 08 2010 11:38 | Comment |

Think the Build America Bonds story is just about the US?

Think again. Read more

Munis hoping investors are ready to build America

| Apr 21 2009 17:33 | Comment |

California and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority are among several issuers hoping investors will buy ‘Build America bonds’, a new form of federally approved funding unveiled earlier this month by the US Treasury

These bonds are intended to support the stressed municipal bond market, which has been hurt by the collapse of the bond insurance industry and by the disruption in the market for auction rate securities and variable-rate demand notes (VRDNs). Read more