MuniLand

Yesterday I attended the always great municipal finance conference held by Bloomberg:

The Bloomberg State & Municipal Finance conference will convene public sector policy makers, labor leaders, pension fund managers, institutional investors and issuers for a full-day program covering current issues central to state and municipal finance and evaluate opportunities for investors and participants in the municipal bond market.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, this might give you a better idea of how it works. This micro-blogging format fit the form of the conference, which had 3-4 speakers on each of its fifteen panels. I tweeted from several of them:

The emcee, William Glasgall, Managing Editor of States and Municipalities for Bloomberg News opens the conference:

BBG managing editor Bill Glasgall opens conf describing #muniland as a cross between “Singing in the rain” and “Psycho” #bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Michael Belsky of New Vernon Wealth Management and former mayor of Highland Park, IL on the “Illinois Treading Water” panel:

Belsky:”6,000 plus local govts in Illinois. Need to consolidate some govts to gain tax relief. More services to county”#bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Ted Hampton of Moody’s Investors Service on Illinois:

Hampton, Moodys “We’ve taken six crdit rating actions on Illinois in the last few years. Four were downgrades” #bbmuno

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Ralph Martire, Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability on Illinois:

Martire, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability”Illinois has borrowed against it’s pension system for 40 years”#bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Kathleen Evers, Managing Director and Head of Municipal Credit Analytics at BMO Capital Markets on the Muni Market Year in Review panel:

Evers, BMO Capital Markets “Often strange security structures were used to evade voter approval for borrowing” #bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Bloomberg’s Bill Glasgall, again on the California Running on Empty panel:

BBG’s Glasgall “Investors line up for California GOs like they are iphones” #bbmuni via @cate_long

— BloombergLINK (@BBGLINK) October 3, 2012

Lawrence Larose, Partner and Chair of Municipal and Insurance Restructuring Team for Winston & Strawn on the The Bankruptcy Decision – How Stockton Changes Everything panel:

Winston & Strawn LaRose: “In recent bankruptcies bondholders are lawyered up and organized”#bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Mark S. Kaufman, Partner and Co-chair of the Municipal Recovery and Restructuring Practice, McKenna Long & Aldridge on the The Bankruptcy Decision: How Stockton Changes Everything panel:

Kaufman, McKennaLong&Aldridge”People cant get their head around protecting some creditors while imposing losses on others”#bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Winston & Strawn’s LaRose again:

Winston & Strawn LaRose “When Stockton went into mediation (pre C9) there was no automatic stay so we seized assets for creditors” #bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Gary Pollack, Managing Director and Head of Fixed-Income Trading and Research for Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management on the Relative Value – Municipal Bonds and Other Fixed Income Asset Classes panel:

Pollack, Deutsche Bank “I dont buy any general obligation bonds from cities with less than 10,000 people.” #bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Laurence L. Gottlieb, Chairman and CEO of Fundamental Advisors on the Fields of Dreams – Stadium Bonds panel:

Gottlieb, Fundamental Advisors “Market got lazy about doing the credit analysis on stadium bonds”#bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

And John V. Miller, Co-Head of Fixed Income for Nuveen Asset Management on the Market for Revenue Bonds vs General Obligation Bonds panel:

Miller, Wells Capital Management”Meredith Whitney is the replacement ref of the municipal market”#bbmuni

— Cate Long (@cate_long) October 3, 2012

Want to see more? Follow my muniland sleuthing on Twitter at @Cate_Long.