Meredith Whitney may end up being right about about the municipal bond market.
Late last year, the Wall Street analyst famous for predicting the financial crisis began warning that the municipal bond market may be headed for a crash. Whitney predicted that there could be as many as 100 municipalities that end up being unable to pay back their debt, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of losses for investors. So far that prediction hasn’t really played out. But the debt ceiling standoff is causing new fears for problems in the municipal bond market. Here’s why:
To be sure, as my colleagues over at Moneyland have pointed out, if the debt ceiling is not raised and the U.S. ends up getting a debt downgrade or defaulting on its bonds, markets in general are likely to go down. But some are worried that U.S. muni bonds could be hurt more than say corporate bonds or stocks.
First of all, more than corporate bonds, the rates that municipalities get on their debt is influenced by the overall high rating of the U.S.
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It has been announced today that cheques will not be phased out after the Payments Council announced it would abolish them in 2018.
The Council has now decided to keep them after criticism from MPs and charities and was forced to make the u-turn after pressure from the public.
Richard North, the chairman of the Payments Council, said: Its in the DNA of the Payments Council to consult and listen to all those people who actually make payments and use cheques.
Listening to over 600 stakeholder groups, working with the banks and following our appearance before the Treasury Select Committee, we have concluded we should reassure customers that the cheque is staying,” he added.
The UK Payments Council voted to phase out cheques on 31 October 2018, but stated that cheques will not be phased out until an “accessible and acceptable” alternative payment system is introduced.
Cheque usage continues to decline as consumers opt to use debit cards or other quicker payment methods.
Figures show it costs up to £1 to process a cheque – four times more than it costs to handle an electronic payment and the move was expected to save banks hundreds of millions each year.
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A twin-engine aircraft has crashed in north-east Brazil, killing all 16 people on board.
The crew had reported problems almost immediately after take-off from the city of Recife, officials said.
They said the pilot had apparently tried to land on the beach near Recife, but the plane came down on an empty lot and burst into flames.
Authorities say they believe weather was not a factor in the crash, which they are now investigating.
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A lot of reader stories featured on Get Rich Slowly are from people who got “saved” from bad financial habits, who were burned by their rabid consumerism and were forced to sober up, who cut up their cards and overcame tremendous debt, bought a smaller home and heated it less, took up a more reasonable hobby, and generally realized the value of family and experiences. Tha
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They said inventory adjustments were expected to continue to affect Acer’s shipments into the second half of this year.
The gloomy assessment came after the company announced in early June it would clear its inventory and disputed account receivables in its Europe, Middle East and Africa operations in a one-time US$150 million write-off.
Acer reported late Monday NT$31.94 billion in unconsolidated sales for June, which was a drop of 28.09 percent from the previous month.
In the first half of this year, Acer’s unconsolidated revenue fell 27.06 percent from a year earlier to NT$198.24 billion.
Prompted by the weaker June sales report, investors rushed to unload Acer shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday, with the stock closing down 4.34 percent at NT$41.90.