Free Republic

High-profile Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney's doomsday prediction that hundreds of billions of dollars in municipal bonds will evaporate in default over the next year has been condemned as improbable to irresponsible by just about anyone who knows anything about municipal finance. Cities and states rarely default on their debt, and for her prediction to be accurate, the economy would have to be getting much worse rather than somewhat better, as most data show. It's hard to imagine even places like California, New York and New Jersey somehow deciding not to pay back bondholders this year; governors in each state...

(Excerpted from the 3rd result of the Google Query -"Russia swap US Treasuries") Russia may switch some of its reserves from U.S. Treasuries to International Monetary Fund bonds, the central bank said today. The comment drove Treasuries and the dollar lower. Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, said some reserves may be moved from Treasuries into IMF debt, reiterating comments made last month by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Ulyukayev’s remarks were confirmed by a Bank Rossii official who declined to be named, citing bank policy. Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year yields toward the highest level in seven months,...