The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

Forget again for a moment the European sovereign credit issues, the cost of credit protection for US municipalities Illinois, California, NY and NJ continue to rise and are up sharply over the past week. Illinois 5 yr CDS is at a fresh record today at 370 bps, up 10 bps on the day and higher by almost 60 bps from one week ago. CA is trading at 350 bps, up 5 bps on the day and now up 50 bps over the past week. NY is quoted at 290 bps, up 6 bps and up almost 50 bps since last Monday. New Jersey is up 1 bps on the day at 281 bps but that is up 30 bps over the past week. CA, NY and NJ are at the highest levels since April ’09. For comparison, Spain is quoted at 267 bps, Portugal, Hungary and Croatia all trade at about 325 bps, Bulgaria at 352 bps, Dubai at 483 bps, and Greece at 1025 bps.