A couple of years ago, billionaire super-investor Warren Buffett told Congress a "terrible problem" with U.S. municipal bonds was on the horizon. Now, Buffett is back, and warning that the crisis is closer than ever.
At this time last year, maybe you thought the economy would be a bit more gracious by now. No such luck. But as we reflect on the year that was, here are six financial lessons that 2011 taught us all.
Last month, Harrisburg, Pa., tried to throw in the financial towel and declare Chapter 9, but a judge threw out the bankruptcy petition. That doesn't mean the city is magically healthy again, though, and it's not the only municipality in similar straits. Here's why it matters to the rest of the country.
The capital of Pennsylvania just fell into bankruptcy. What? You didn't hear? Neither did the financial markets -- yet. The day after Harrisburg bit the bullet, the Dow barely trembled, while the Nasdaq actually rose slightly. But two of our smartest investors seem to think this is a very big deal indeed.
After respected banking analyst Meredith Whitney rattled the municipal bond market with her prediction of hundreds of billions of dollars in muni defaults, small investors dumped the bonds. That dire prediction may yet come true, but there are a few types of munis that still carry virtually no risk.
There's no shortage of pundits who shot to fame on the back of a bold, contrarian call only to come up empty afterwards. Meredith Whitney and Nuriel Rubini are just two pundits who called the meltdown while most others were oblivious. Too bad they've fared less well lately.
The financial analyst who rose to fame for her bearish calls on banks ahead of the financial crisis, sees more bad news ahead, predicting that banks will close 5% of their branch offices over the next year and a half.
Meredith Whitney, an analyst who rose to fame as one of the few people who predicted the financial crisis ahead of time, now plans to from a new credit agency, the Financial Times reports.
The financial media loves to pluck struggling analysts from obscurity and propel them to fame on the backs of a few good calls, then shoot them full of arrows at them when their predictions start to fail. And inevitably, those so-called gurus will fail. Here's why.
