Senior SEC Employee Warns Of Potential Municipal Bond Market Collapse

Senior SEC Employee Warns Of Potential Municipal Bond Market Collapse

Rick Bookstaber, who is a a Senior Policy Advisor to the Director of the SEC, Mary Schapiro, continues to maintain his own private non_SEC affiliated blog.

By Robert Wenzel | 6 April 2010

Prior to joining the SEC, Bookstaber served as the managing director in charge of firm-wide risk management at Salomon Brothers, director of risk management at Moore Capital Management, and Morgan Stanley's first market risk manager. He is the author of three books and a number of articles on finance topics ranging from option theory to risk management, and has received various awards for his research. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On his blog he writes that he doesn't think:

…we will see a big crisis emerging for some time in banks, hedge funds or derivatives, mostly because, like with a knockout punch, the risks that matter don't come from where you are looking…

He is not so sanguine about the municipal bond market:

So, where to look next. To see other potential sources of crisis, let's first recount the lessons learned from this crisis: 1. Problems occur when things get leveraged and complex (and thus opaque). 2. If the problems occur in a very big market, especially in a very big market like housing that is tied to the credit markets, things can go systemic. 3. The notion that you can diversify by holding a geographically broad-based portfolio, ("there has never been a nation-wide housing recession"), works fine— until it doesn't. 4. A portfolio that is apparently hedged can blow apart. So we have to look at the gross value of positions, even if they are thought to be hedged. 5. Don't bet on ratings, because rating agencies are conflicted and might not be all too dependable at their job. 6. Defaults are never easy to manage, but it gets worse when there are a lot of them happening at the same time. It is harder to manage the mess, and there is less of a stigma in defaulting. And it is all the worse when, as is the case in the housing markets, those defaulting are not businessmen. As an added complication, with housing the revenue that we thought was there really wasn't. Income that was supposed to be there to finance the mortgages— even when that income was fairly stated— became committed to other areas (like second mortgages). Well, guess where we have a market that is (1) leveraged and opaque, that is (2) very big and tied to the credit markets; and is (3) viewed by investors as being diversifiable by holding a geographically broad-based portfolio; with (4) huge portfolios where assets and liabilities are apparently matched; and with (5) questionable analyses by rating agencies; and where (6) there are many entities, entities that may not approach default with business-like dispatch, and that have already mortgaged sources of revenue that are thought to support their liabilities? Answer: The municipal market. Leverage and Opacity. Leverage in the municipal market comes from making future obligations to employees in order to pay them less now. This is borrowing in the form of high pension benefits and post-retirement health care, but borrowing nonetheless. Put another way, in taking lower pay today, the employees have lent money to the municipality, with that money to be repaid via their retirement benefits. The opaqueness comes from the methods of reporting. For example, municipalities are not held to the same standards as corporations in their disclosure. Size and potential systemic effects. That this is a big market in the credit space goes without saying. Diversification. Geographic diversification would give a lot more comfort for municipals if it hadn't just failed for the housing market. Think of why housing breached the regional barriers. It was because similar methods of leveraging were being employed through the country. So the question to ask is: Are there common sorts of strategies being applied in municipalities across the nation? Gross versus net exposure. The leverage for municipals is not easy to see. It might appear to be lower than it really is because many, including rating agencies, look at the unfunded portion of these liabilities. They ignore the fact that these promised payments are covered using risky portfolios. And not just risky— the portfolio might apply hefty (a.k.a. unrealistic) actuarial assumptions of asset growth. Rating agencies. In terms of the work of the rating agencies, here are two questions to ask. First, list the last time they did an on-site exam of the municipalities they are rating. Second, are they looking at the potential mismatch between assets and liabilities, or simply at the net— the under funded portion of the portfolio. Defaults. Municipalities are not quite as numerous as homeowners, but there certainly are a lot of them. And they have the same issues as homeowners. Granted, they will not pour cement down the toilet before walking away. But they have a potentially equally irrational group— the local taxpayers— to deal with. Oh, and just as homeowners took their income and locked it up via secondary loans, much of the tax base for municipalities is already mortgaged, through the sale of tax-related revenues streams like tolls and parking fees. Indeed, although general obligation bonds are considered the cream of the crop, they might just as well be regarded as the residual claim after anything with solid fee streams has been sold off. Once a few municipalities default, there is a risk of a widespread cascade in defaults because the opprobrium will be lessened, all the more so if the defaults are spurred along by a taxpayer revolt— democracy at work.

Well, he's a government employee, so you have to expect the shot he takes at the end, against revolting taxpayers, but otherwise the analysis, itself, of the municipal market is strong. No one knows how many landmines are planted ready to be stepped on. Those investing in municipal bonds to get a tax break on interest earned may find out they are going to end up with a capital loss tax break instead, and no interest income at all.

[ Normxxx Here:  Nevertheless, I continue to believe that there are some great bargains still in the muni bond market, as all have been tarred with the same brush, but most municipalities are far more solid than their business counterparts. Of course, I agree that we are very likely to get a cascade of defaults among the weaker municipalities, which will cause all of them to take a (temporary) hit— but that will only increase the number and degree of the bargains (so you may want to wait until that happens to dabble). Muni bonds have already made back most of the loss they suffered in the "Great Panic" of 2008 and March, 2009. See also States Aren't About To Default On Debt. ]

ߧ

Normxxx    
______________

The contents of any third-party letters/reports above do not necessarily reflect the opinions or viewpoint of normxxx. They are provided for informational/educational purposes only.

The content of any message or post by normxxx anywhere on this site is not to be construed as constituting market or investment advice. Such is intended for educational purposes only. Individuals should always consult with their own advisors for specific investment advice.