Pennsylvania + Wall

SIFMA's Economic Advisory Roundtable is composed of chief U.S. economists from several SIFMA member firms. Twice per year, the Roundtable publishes the results of a detailed survey on the U.S. economic outlook and rates forecasts.

Yesterday, the Roundtable released its "U.S. End-Year 2014 Economic Outlook," forecasting that the U.S. economy will grow at a 2.3% rate in full-year 2014 and 3.0% in 2015. The following is a Q&A with Diane Swonk, Chief Economist for Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc. and Chair of the Economic Advisory Roundtable..... Read more...

By Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr.

SIFMA held its annual State of the Industry media briefing on December 4, 2014 in NYC. In this review of the past year, we examined the role the capital markets play in the nation’s economic recovery; our efforts around cybersecurity, equity market structure reform, and preserving investor choice; and our policy agenda for the coming year.

How did the capital markets perform in 2014?
On the whole, 2014 was a good year for our industry and the clients we serve: our capital markets provided approximately 75% of financing for businesses in the U.S., and we matched retail and institutional investors with those sellers in the marketplace..... Read more...

By David Cohen

 SIFMA believes that tremendous strides have been made in improving market transparency for retail investors over the past twenty years - yet for people who are familiar with the equities market that operates with a central exchange and constant trading activity, the municipal market may still seem opaque.  In fact, the municipal market operates differently-but those differences are not incomprehensible and they are not part of any deliberate plan to obscure the facts or impede the ability of investors to understand bonds or their pricing.  Continuing retail investor confidence in the municipal bond market that has financed four million miles of roads, half a million bridges, 16,000 airports and 900,000 miles of water pipes all across the country is critical.

First, the bond "market" is not the same as the stock "market".  There are several structural differences between the two.  There is no central place or exchange to sell or buy municipal bonds; the municipal market is a huge "over-the-counter" market consisting of a network of over 1,600 independent dealers across the country. The muni bond market is so vast that its size, which consists of approximately $3.7 trillion of outstanding bonds, is sometimes hard to imagine.  This year alone, state and local governments across the country have accessed over $215.4 billion in funding through the municipal bond markets..... Read more...