Articles

The municipal bond insurance market took a beating during the financial crisis, virtually disappearing. Now the question everyone is asking is, do we need it?

It is tough to keep up with the market and all the news that gets released each week, even for the professionals. Every month we are given economic data in the form of indicators and these indicators help get a read on the econoomy.

In order to understand the AIG debacle or any other possible seizure or bailout of an insurance company, it is important to understand the inner-workings of the insurance industry.

The rate of decline has declined, but it has still declined. Or, put another way, housing prices are still declining on a year-to-year basis, but that rate of decline has slowed.

Savings and CD rates continue their slow glide to oblivion while 30-year mortgage rates climbed above 5% for the first time since October.

Every now and then the mainstream media will do an article on the hatchet job that the Fed has done on the savers of this country. Today they printed one such article.

Today was a full day of news of the economy, but not a lot of changes in the bond markets.

Charge cards, plastic that allows you to charge goods and services and then pay the balance in full every month, are becoming more popular again. Are they the way to go over debit cards for the responsible spender?

GDP for the third quarter of 2009 was revised down from 2.8% to 2.2% today. That was a greater drop than many economists forecast (aren't economists like meteorologists?). As the graphs below show, durable goods orders led the way and powering durable goods gains were increased in auto sales.

The Treasury yield curve, which measures the rate difference between shorter and longer term Treasury securities reached its steepest this morning. A steep yield curve is usually a sign of an economic recovery and an increase in inflation.

Savings rates stayed steady at 1.57% APY last week. 1-year CD rates also stayed flat at 1.96% APY. This marks the first time in months that both savings and 1-year CD rates have not dropped. What's even more interesting, is that they held while 3-year and 5-year rates dropped considerably. Three-year rates dropped by 8 basis points from 2.72% APY to 2.64% APY while 5-year CDs dropped from 3.26% APY to 3.21% APY.