In December 2010, Meredith Whitney, the Wall Street analyst who famously predicted the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008, appeared on 60 Minutes and declared that 50 to 100 major U.S. states and localities would default on their municipal bonds in the coming months. More than $60 billion flowed out of municipal bond mutual funds during the next few weeks in one of the largest sell-offs in market history. Fortunately, if a recent trend in the municipal market technology continues, these types of abrupt, market-wide dislocations might be a thing of the past. That’s both a challenge and an opportunity for state and local finance professionals.

• Publication date: October 2023
• Author: Justin Marlowe