Lord Abbett's Milton Ezrati looks to the municipal markets and examines a few of the positives taking shape. "State and local government finances remain precarious. The degree of trouble varies from place to place, of course, but generally it will take decades for states and cities to put their finances in anything like good order. It is, in fact, a good bet that no middle-aged person today will live to see such an event. One wag has suggested that the yet unborn will not live to see such a day. But if such cynicism carries truth, the immediate outlook can nonetheless anticipate some modest relief, at least enough to ease some of the strains under which state and local governments have labored and enough to improve investment performance in the area as well as on the overall economic picture."
