Why I Ran Away From Municipal Bonds In 2007

If you haven’t filed your 2012 federal income taxes yet, the clock is ticking. As of today, you have two weeks to get them in by the filing deadline of April 17, 2012.

On Wednesday, I posted a chart of US Treasury Yields asking the question Yield Curve: Where To From Here? Extreme Complacency in Face of Bernanke Shift. Today's focus is on municipal bonds, but first let's take a look at a chart from the above link. Treasury Yield Curve

Shishir Nigam submits: PIMCO’s Intermediate Municipal Bond Strategy Fund (MUNI) turns one today, having been launched on November 30th, 2009 a year ago.

By StreetAuthority: By Michael Vodicka When billionaire bond manager Bill Gross speaks, investors listen.

ByGlen Rosenberg:Years ago, most tax free municipal bonds individual investors were buying were AAA insured. That's not the case any longer. Now more than ever, informed bond investors have a tremendous advantage over uninformed muni bond investors.

Rougemont submits: The recent rout in bonds has created an opportunity to earn about 8% tax free in a few closed end municipal bond funds. This 8% yield provides a 12% tax equivalent yield. My favorite in this sector is Van Kampen Advantage Municipal Income Trust (VKI), which has lately traded at a discount to net asset value, even though in recent history it has sold at a premium.

Michael Johnston submits:Following a tremendously successful 2009 that saw more than $40 billion flow into fixed income ETFs, the number of bond ETFs is expected to increase significantly in 2010. In what could be the first of many new product launches, iShares introduced a line of new municipal bond, or “muni,” ETFs on Friday.

By Tom Lydon: Ongoing talks over the so-called fiscal cliff and speculation of removing the tax-exempt status on municipal bonds has pressured muni bonds and exchange traded funds, although they recovered somewhat last week.ETFs such iShares S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF (MUB) fell hard in mid-December, but have bounced a bit recently.