FLMB News and Press, Franklin Templeton ETF Trust Liberty Municipal Bond From 11/11/20

The media has been rife with headlines foretelling revenue shortfalls and a cash crisis for battered state budgets. We look under the hood to better assess the status of the headline-grabbing states with the largest debt burdens. Bond investors are right to be concerned. For...

Rising interest rates pressured bond prices in October. Record-high monthly issuance was well absorbed amid strong demand. We expect a favorable supply-demand backdrop through year end. For further details see: Munis Overcome A Glut Of Issuance

The White House is still not decided. This was "prime time" for the blue wave conversations entering the bond market. Municipal bonds aren't hurt as much as they are not helped. A second stimulus bill that would include additional aid for state and local governments will be ha...

In years with presidential elections, we take a deeper dive into how the national election could impact state and local governments. Political risk is also an important component of our analysis, as the political party makeup of the executive and legislative branches can have a large ...

While most polls have Vice-President Biden ahead by 6-7% points, we know the race has the potential to be much closer. A higher marginal rate should also flatten the muni yield curve over time as the demand for longer-dated paper increases because of the benefits it provides on a taxa...

In U.S. high yield bonds we find the riskiest of credits. I have some concerns about municipal bonds and am particularly concerned about municipal pension bonds. Our 'Borrower's Paradise' is also good news for many leveraged ETFs and closed-end funds. For further details see...

" Municipal bond investors have to share the burden in state bailouts " writes my colleague Josh Rauh, and he is exactly right. Background: State and local governments borrowed a lot of money and blew it. They borrowed further by not funding their pensions. Now Covid comes along, people are ...

At the end of July, Moody's Investors Service released its annual municipal bond market snapshot, US municipal bond defaults and recoveries, 1970-2019, with updates through 2019. The report continues to affirm two hallmark benefits offered by muni bonds. First, municipal defaults and bankruptc...

New York (September 15) - One of the more troubling admissions of Federal Reserve Chair Powell at his speech last month was his acknowledgement that "r-star" (r*), or the "natural" rate of interest, had fallen by some 50% since 2012. As Chair Powell described it: This rate (the r*rate) ...

Franklin Templeton today announced Franklin Liberty Intermediate Municipal Opportunities ETF (FLMI) will be renamed Franklin Liberty Federal Intermediate Tax-Free Bond Opportunities ETF, and Franklin Liberty Municipal Bond ETF (FLMB) will be renamed Franklin Liberty Federal Tax-Free Bond ETF....