munis

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.

As investments, municipal bonds have been traditionally seen as safe, stodgy and boring. None of those terms describe Jim Lebenthal, one of "munis" biggest fans. Now 81, Lebenthal gave up a promising career as a Hollywood correspondent to join the family business of investing in muni bonds.