Municipalities, Public Finance and the Muni Markets ARE Bad -- Revisiting Meredith Whitney


December 2011 and January 2012

It is appropriate to end 2011 and begin 2012 by revisiting Meredith Whitney. Meredith Whitney is the well known corporate side stock analyst who one year ago said Municipalities are in bad shape.
She even did this on "60 Minutes."

Public, or Municipal, budgets have been, are and will be in bad shape. This is no secret any longer, and there will be more to come on Municipal budgets and resulting public finance.

2011 was a tough year for Meredith Whitney because there were not as many Muni defaults as Meredith had figured.
She was widely criticized.

I defended Meredith then and I will defend her now.Things are bad for Municipalities, things are bad in public finance and things are bad in the Muni Markets. But things do not move nor happen for Municipalities nor the Muni Markets the way they do on the corporate / stock side. What clearly looks like a Municipal bankruptcy and/or Muni Market default to Meredith Whitney, a corporate stock analyst, does not necessarily result in a bankruptcy or default on the Muni side.

The important message to take from Meredith Whitney is that things are bad.