Today we updated our muni bond database with more than 500 upcoming auctions totaling more than $27 billion in new deals spread over 44 states.
The largest upcoming issues include:

$3.5 billion – State of Illinois
$900 million – Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
$700 million – State of Arizona
$500 million – State of Washington

Unlimited access to our municipal bond [...]

Comments Off | Filed under: General, Municipal Bonds
Posted on January 15th, 2010 by Bob Brinker

Today’s CPI Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is welcome news to FOMC members. They appear to have won their battle against deflation for now. The headline CPI increased 2.72% year-over-year and the core CPI increased 1.82% year-over-year. The following chart illustrates the CPI rates over the past two decades.
 
What is especially notable [...]

Comments Off | Filed under: Federal Reserve, General, Inflation
Posted on January 15th, 2010 by Bob Brinker

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President and CEO Dennis P. Lockhart is a non-voting member of the FOMC in 2010. Yesterday he gave a speech to the Downtown Atlanta Rotary that I felt contained some valuable insight into the current thinking of some FOMC members. Below are some quotes from his speech with my thoughts [...]

Comments Off | Filed under: Federal Reserve, General
Posted on January 12th, 2010 by Bob Brinker

Here are the December 15/16 FOMC minutes

My takeways:

economic activity improving
capacity utilization still very low
job losses slowing
real PCE picking up
housing steady
foreign economies emerging from recession
CRE conditions still deteriorating

Comments Off | Filed under: Federal Reserve, General
Posted on January 6th, 2010 by Bob Brinker

The January 2010 edition of the Brinker Fixed Income Advisor is online at www.BrinkerAdvisor.com. This month we review our economic indicators and provide our view on the year ahead.
Our 2009 Model Portfolio performance figures through year-end:
Aggressive Portfolio + 33%
Moderate Portfolio + 20%
Conservative Portfolio + 14%
Tax-Exempt Portfolio + 13% **this a tax-exempt return**
Happy New Year!

Comments Off | Filed under: General, Investment Letter
Posted on January 3rd, 2010 by Bob Brinker