The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

If Ben Bernanke were an investor, he’d be bummed out. The first chunk of the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion Treasury bond purchase program is in the red thanks to rising yields. The central bank’s cheap financing makes outright losses unlikely, but Mr. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, could still face an image problem.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

NEW YORK — Corporate titans aren’t usually rewarded for shrinking their companies. But the CEOs of two of the world’s biggest companies, General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt and Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit, have had to do something like that. Bloated balance sheets heavily reliant on short-term financing forced both to beg for government help two years ago. Since then, they’ve been shedding assets in a bid to return to normal business and create a buffer against ever needing taxpayer handouts again.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

Armageddon makes for a sexy story. Volatility in the $2.8 trillion U.S. municipal bond market is real, but the scary tale being spun out of budget-busting states like California involves a lot of literary license.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday finally published details of the institutions that clamored for its funds during the financial crisis. It’s hardly surprising that troubled banks like Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup topped the charts for banks that lined up for federal money. But the disclosure illustrates the scope of the U.S. central bank’s measures to keep the financial system on life support. The scale of emergency lending — $3.3 trillion at its peak — could hold important lessons for Europe, too.

Europe may be burning and the U.S. smoldering, but the comfortably-off are splurging on their blue-boxed trinkets. Tiffany is reaping the benefits, posting double-digit sales growth across the globe in its third quarter, most notably in Europe where receipts rose 22 percent in the period. Together with a bright outlook, that suggests well-heeled and aspirational consumers aren’t anticipating another painful downturn.

In 2008, the near-collapse of the financial system unnerved the usually confident, comfortable class. Tiffany’s sales tumbled. Its holiday season that year was a disaster, with sales plunging 21 percent. And it wasn’t just consumers wanting to spend their way up the social ladder that dropped off. Even the firm’s traditional customers cut back. That proved that even those with plenty of money — with the possible exception of the billionaires club — need confidence if they are to indulge themselves.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

The normally staid U.S. municipal bond market is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Yields on tax-exempt bonds, the parking lot for wealthy investors looking for tax breaks, have soared this week, a mini meltdown that has prompted the Gwinnett County Water and Sewerage Authority and others to pull more than $3 billion of deals.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

When Ireland and Greece run big budget deficits, debt investors get angry. But when California says it will need more than $20 billion to balance its budget, bond buyers stay cool. The state is marketing $10 billion of short-term debt that matures next year to big and small investors at interest rates that would make Dublin or Athens green with envy.

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

The tax deductibility of mortgage interest is almost as inviolable a part of the American dream as is the U.S. Constitution. The co-chairs of the White House deficit commission have boldly, and rightly, put this almost century-old sacred cow on the chopping block. Now they just have to convince legislators to swing the axe. They could start by killing the myth that the subsidy is all about middle class homeownership.

Investors feel better when risky bonds come with flak jackets. Drive-by deals, so named for skipping over the conventional road-show route in favor of a one-day turnaround, don’t give investors much time to ensure they’re protected. Shoddier bondholder provisions in a slew of recent, often rushed, deals indicate many are not.

MetroPCS is a case in point. The cellphone service provider secured itself considerably more leeway than other similar borrowers in a hastily arranged $1 billion sale last week. To ensure they’re paid back, bond holders like to restrict a heavily indebted company’s spending, investment and borrowing. As a general rule, high-yield issuers have been able to tap only about 5 percent of their available assets, according to Moody’s Investors Service median estimate. MetroPCS was granted access to close to 30 percent.

Nigeria has a bad rap in the developed world. Renowned for email scams and widespread corruption, Nigeria runs the risk of being judged, perhaps unfairly, by investors looking warily at its $500 million bond offering scheduled for later this year or in early 2011. But Africa’s most populous nation, in a post-crisis world, actually looks deserving of the funds.

First, Nigeria has very little debt—it stands at just 16 percent of GDP. Compare that with the United States, where public debt stands at 88 percent of GDP, or worse, Greece, where the debt load has soared to 133 percent, according to JPMorgan. That also means a scarcity of Nigerian paper may appeal to investors wanting to diversify into frontier economies.