And if so, why can't they find "safer" places? Do they have enough money so that they can blithely risk part of it for greater returns?
And where does this money looking for a home come from?
Or are these foolish questions?
Carrol
On 6/17/2011 5:09 PM, Ferenc Molnar wrote:
>
> Thank you all for scaring me. And here's this on Wisconsin's new "Public Finance Authority".
>
> --------------------------------
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> Wisconsin Issuer Roils Muni Field
> By JEANNETTE NEUMANN
>
>
> North Carolina officials denied a nonprofit group's request last year to sell municipal bonds for a new retirement community, saying the project was too risky.The group soon found a way around the problem. Instead of issuing bonds to build the Cary, N.C., facility through a regulatory agency in its home state, Samaritan Housing Foundation Inc. turned to Public Finance Authority of Wisconsin.
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> Now the offering of as much as $125 million is back on track. Samaritan says it has "pre-sold" about 70% of the units in the retirement community, despite North Carolina's worries about the rocky housing market.
>
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> Public Finance Authority has an increasing but controversial toehold in the municipal-bond market, where nonprofit groups and even companies sometimes sell debt to raise money under the name of a state, town or other government authority. Such so-called conduit financing deals add up to about 30% of all municipal bonds issued, according to Matt Fabian, managing director for Municipal Market Advisors, a research firm in Concord, Mass.
>
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> Since opening its doors in September, Public Finance Authority has sold $206 million in municipal bonds on behalf of nine borrowers, ranging from the Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative to the Glenridge on Palmer Ranch retirement community in Sarasota, Fla. About a dozen additional bond deals for a combined $300 million are in the pipeline.
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> Critics claim the Wisconsin organization's willingness to back deals spurned by regulators elsewhere means investors are vulnerable to risky bonds that otherwise might never get sold.
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> Some state officials say Public Finance Authority is meddling in their business with no regard for longstanding public policy, risk tolerance and procedures used by states to approve or reject municipal-bond deals.
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> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576361653960963810.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
>
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