Special Briefing on the Muni Debt Boom: Record Borrowing Amid Budget Strains

State and local borrowing is up 20% year-over-year with a record $600 billion in municipal bond issuance estimated by the end of 2025, representing 15% of the $4 trillion muni market. For a discussion of the challenges and trends observed across the demand and supply sides of the muni market during a time of heightened federal uncertainty, William Glasgall, Penn IUR Fellow and Public Finance Adviser at the Volcker Alliance, and Susan Wachter, Co-Director of Penn IUR and Wharton Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance, co-hosted the Special Briefing. The panel included:

• Matt Fabian, President, Municipal Market Analytics
• Fitzroy Lee, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Chief Economist, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, District of Columbia
• Vikram Rai, Portfolio Manager and Macro Trader, First New York
• Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO, Truth in Accounting
• Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics.

This Special Briefing was the latest in a series of 60-minute online discussions featuring distinguished guests from Penn IUR and the Volcker Alliance’s national research networks, along with other leading academics, economists, and federal, state, and local leaders. These convenings are made possible by funding from The Travelers Institute, members of the Penn IUR Advisory Board, and the Volcker Alliance.

This briefing is the sixty-first in a series of sixty-minute online conversations on public finance featuring experts from the national research networks of the Volcker Alliance and Penn IUR, along with other leading academics, economists, and federal, state, and local leaders. 

Special Briefings are made possible by funding from The Travelers Institute, the Volcker Alliance, and members of the Penn IUR Advisory Board. Recordings of the entire Special Briefings series are available on the Volcker Alliance or Penn IUR websites. 

Be sure to subscribe to the Special Briefing podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeart Radio and more. 

Subscribe to the Volcker Alliance newsletter and Penn IUR newsletter for advance notice of new Special Briefings.