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After seven years of recession, a ballooning budget deficit and billions in unfunded pension liabilities, Puerto Rico’s bonds last week were downgraded by two agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, to “junk” status. The third rating agency, Fitch, is likely to follow the other two agencies and downgrade Puerto Rico […]
UBS Puerto Rico bond investors better look out; the giant investment bank’s research analysts just dropped the first shoe on your heads. Last week, UBS issued a report stating that at least one of the Big 3 rating agencies, Moody’s, Fitch or Standard & Poor’s, will cut a swath of […]
The vulture hedge funds are circling Puerto Rico’s $70 billion municipal bond market and are about to swoop. This is another round of disturbing news for Mom and Pop investors who own UBS closed-end Puerto Rico bond funds as well as the tens of thousands of other investors who own […]
The clock is ticking towards a default by Puerto Rico on its massive municipal bond debt. According to a report last week in the Financial Times, some creditors met in New York City to discuss a possible restructuring of Puerto Rico’s massive $70 billion debt with “restructuring specialists.” The specialists, […]
Variable annuities have had a bad rap for some time. They are expensive, with brokers charging commissions between seven and ten percent of the amount invested. They are extremely difficult to understand, due to layers of opaque surrender charges and fees. And – because of tax deferrals – variable annuities […]
Retired and conservative Puerto Rico bond investors last year woke up to the harsh reality that the bonds they were holding in their retirement accounts were one notch above junk bond status. Indeed, a disturbing report from InvestementNews earlier this week tallied $1.66 billion in bond losses over the first […]
After taking a glance back at the last 12 months, it’s clear that investors have a lot to be nervous about as we say good-bye to 2013 and hello to 2014. The top scandals of 2013, including federal officials negotiating $13 billion in fines for JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest […]
As Puerto Rico’s economy continues to deteriorate and its bonds continue to erode in value, it sure seems as if the island commonwealth could use a visit this Christmas from Santa Claus. Moody’s listed the island commonwealth’s failures to access the public debt markets and declines in liquidity among five […]
Zamansky LLC announces that it is investigating sales of managed futures funds to brokerage firm customers. The investigation concerns managed-futures funds offered by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and its subsidiary Ceres Managed Futures, Merrill Lynch Alternative Investments LLC, and others. Zamansky LLC announces that it is investigating sales of managed […]
The ink is not even dry on the new Volcker Rule, designed to stop investment banks from speculative trading for their own gains and limits their ability to invest in hedge funds. But Wall Street and its bankers are surely starting to look for ways around the rule, which was […]