How responsive is the supply of tax-exempt bonds to state and local government borrowing costs? This question is critical to the effectiveness of current federal tax policies designed to stimulate investment in infrastructure and education. Would states borrow more if their cost of capital were...

Bond insurance was a small but sophisticated sector of the broader insurance industry. Conceived and created in the 1970s, bond insurance penetrated more than half of the entire US municipal bond market in the 1990s. This article explains bond insurance, its rise to prominence, and its sudden...