The Muni Lowdown

Host Paul Greaves and Ben Miller, managing editor for Debtwire Latin America, speak with our guest about how Venezuela’s political shock and the CITGO sale are reshaping expectations for one of the world’s largest sovereign restructurings.

After the January operation that led to Nicolás Maduro’s capture and Delcy Rodríguez becoming interim president, Venezuelan bonds surged into the low 40s as investors reassessed political risk and the prospects for a long‑stalled restructuring. We explore why the PDVSA 2020 secured creditors now sit at the center of negotiations and how a USD 60bn stock of defaulted bonds fits into a much larger liability burden.

The discussion focuses on CITGO — Venezuela’s most valuable foreign asset — and the Delaware‑supervised sale that produced a USD 5.9bn winning bid, including a USD 2.1bn carveout for the secureds. We also look at OFAC’s expanding role in determining what restructuring steps are even possible, and we close by asking our guest for the key hinge point that will signal whether Venezuela is finally moving toward a real resolution.

Paul Greaves and co‑host Kunal Kamal sit down with Tod Trabacco, Head of Private Debt Advisory at StepStone Group, to unpack how private credit is reshaping pensions, infrastructure finance and the drivers of municipal credit strength.

Tod explains how major public pensions structure private credit portfolios, the risks they focus on, and how liquidity dynamics influence performance. He connects those forces directly to contribution volatility — the core variable that ultimately shapes municipal credit — giving listeners a clear, practical view into how the fastest‑growing asset class in pensions really works.

The discussion then turns to the rapid rise of private financing across transportation, essential infrastructure and real‑asset credit. Drawing on a global allocator’s perspective, Tod outlines what’s behind this shift, how private credit is competing with traditional financing sources, and what it means for the future of large‑scale infrastructure investment.

Paul Greaves and Kunal Kamal speak with John Miller, Head and CIO of Municipal Credit at First Eagle Investments, on how heavy supply and repeated system shocks are driving credit dispersion in munis and reshaping risk. In the episode, Miller discusses how recent developments in project finance have reinforced a broader shift in municipal markets away from broad market moves and toward issuer‑specific credit outcomes. He explains how today’s opportunity set differs from a year ago and where dispersion between stronger and weaker credits has become most apparent.

Host Paul Greaves and co‑host Kunal Kamal talk with UNLV economist Andrew Woods about what diverging tourism indicators reveal about the real state of the Las Vegas economy.

Las Vegas visitor counts are falling even as Strip gaming revenue hits records. Andrew Woods explains what these conflicting signals mean, why fewer visitors may be spending more, and how rising prices are reshaping demand.

We dive into what’s keeping visitation stuck near 39–40 million, which parts of the local economy respond first to tourism slowdowns, the warning indicators economists watch, the shortfall in international travel, and what the next reinvention of Las Vegas might require to push volumes back toward 42–43 million and beyond.

On The Muni Lowdown, Paul Greaves and Stephanie Fagnani speak with Aayushi Mishra, PhD candidate and Lizzy Warner Fellow, about how climate pressures are reshaping the fiscal outlook for cities and states.

This episode breaks down how the loop forms—starting with how climate impacts move through a city’s finances, from emergency response costs to disrupted revenues and rising insurance pressures. We examine why post‑disaster borrowing can deepen fiscal vulnerability, and how municipal bond markets are pricing, absorbing, or sometimes reinforcing climate‑driven risk.

We also dig into the signals investors should look for to distinguish true resilience from repeated recovery spending. And we close with what it will take to break the climate debt doom loop—through smarter use of debt, better risk modeling, stronger federal alignment, and market incentives that reward long‑term adaptation.

On this episode of the Debtwire Municipals Muni Lowdown podcast, Managing Editor Paul Greaves speaks with public finance expert Liz Farmer about the shifting realities facing state and local budgets.

Liz begins by outlining what feels stable—and what feels newly uncertain—as governments enter another budget cycle. From there, she unpacks how rapid federal policy shifts and more assertive federal actions are reshaping the planning environment for states and municipalities.

Paul and Liz then explore the growing impact of geopolitical tensions on local finances, including supply‑chain pressures, energy‑related cost spikes, and the ripple effects these create for capital projects and service delivery.

They zoom out to examine the broader forces redefining public budgeting—from demographic changes to rising service costs, climate‑driven spending, and other structural trends that deserve far more attention.

Liz closes the episode with a forward‑looking take on what state and local leaders should be preparing for in the year ahead—and the under‑discussed risks and opportunities that could matter most for long‑term fiscal resilience.

In this episode of Muni Lowdown, we take a look at New Hampshire’s first‑of‑its‑kind Bitcoin‑backed municipal bond with guest Les Borsai, Co‑Founder of Wave Digital Assets. We unpack what the deal actually is—in straightforward municipal terms—and why a conduit issuer became the vehicle of choice for a digital‑asset‑collateralized financing.

We explore the rationale behind using this structure. Les walks through how traditional muni investors should think about Bitcoin as collateral, how the structure manages price movements over time, and what safeguards were essential in earning state‑level approval.

Listeners will also hear how this differs from familiar asset‑backed or project‑finance muni bonds, what types of investors have shown early interest, and whether innovations like this are likely to remain niche experiments or signal the beginning of a broader intersection between digital assets and public finance.

Laura L. Mayfield, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager on the Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc. Securitized Products desk joins Managing Editor Paul Greaves and Journalist Kunal Kamal to discuss ABS stress and municipal revenues.

In this episode, we delve into whether asset-backed securities (ABS) offer an early warning system for shifts in the broader economy.

We examine emerging stress signals across consumer securitizations, dig into the rapid rise of data center ABS and assess the material risks tied to power constraints, leverage, and AI-driven capital demands.

We also explore what all of this means for municipalities that depend on various taxes, utility revenues and economic development incentives tied to these sectors and whether local governments are prepared for the opportunities and vulnerabilities ahead.

Managing Editor Paul Greaves, Curation Editor Stephanie Fagnani and Head of Public Policy and Municipal Strategy Tom Kozlik at Hilltop Securities discuss how federal policy and artificial intelligence are reshaping the municipal market.

This episode dives into the evolving dynamics of municipal finance in the face of shifting federal funding and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). We explore whether federal dollars act as a stabilizer or a source of uncertainty for investors and examine sectors facing structural challenges—like higher education—that amplify these funding shifts. Our conversation also looks at how declining federal support impacts municipal bond supply and demand.

Then, we pivot to AI: why it’s not just a tech story but a public finance story, how it could reshape infrastructure investment, and the opportunities and risks it creates for municipalities.

Finally, we discuss the race between AI adoption and energy infrastructure readiness—and what that means for local governments and investors.

The latest Debtwire Municipals Muni Lowdown podcast features Managing Editor Paul Greaves discussing state funding of disasters with Peter Muller, Senior Officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts and Journalist Kunal Kamal.

Peter was one of the lead authors for the recently published issue brief by Pew entitled "What Waning Federal Disaster Aid Would Mean for State Budgets."

The podcast begins with Peter discussing the impetus for this issue brief.

The discussion shifts to the following topics:

• The exclusion of the US territories from this analysis.
• Highlighting how federal disaster aid can rival or exceed some states’ reserves in major disaster years and the ability of states to withstand repeated disasters.
• The headwinds faced by states due to FEMA denials rising sharply in 2025 and slower rollout of disaster aid.
• Discussing whether there is an appropriate risk-sharing model between the federal, state and local governments.
• Whether states create/maintain a standalone disaster reserve.
• Examining whether certain states are more or less prepared to face a scenario of significantly reduced federal support?