If Your Advisor/Broker Calls To Sell You Muni Bonds

Hang up the phone immediately and move your account.  We have found brokers/advisors from Raymond James, Wells Fargo/Wachovia, Bank of America/Merrill and RBS to be particularly pernicious.  As per the report linked from Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture:

"For the year ending in June 2009, the period corresponding to most states’ fiscal years, total state tax collections declined by $63 billion or 8.2% from the previous year. That loss is also a record, and is roughly twice the amount states gained during the year in fiscal relief from the federal stimulus package."

Please read this article and study the charts, which show the plunging source of revenue used to repay muni debt:  LINK

To be sure, it is likely that the Fed/Treasury will ultimately be forced to print even more money in order to bail out our municipalities.   But in between, I guarantee you that your broker/advisor will be calling you often, as muni prices tank, to sell you more "great value" paper.  And at the end of the day, even with a bailout, you'll be left with nothing but paper that has even less value than it does now.