The MTA plans a $650 million bond sale in early 2010; Build America Bonds will comprise most of the MTAs offering.

This event was recorded, and streaming audio is available. Corresponding powerpoint and PDF presentations are available on the right.

The stimulus act created a new type of bond -- the Build America Bond. Widely credited with unfreezing the municipal bond market, over $70 billion worth have been issued to date to finance public works including road, water, K-12, university, and power projects. Alan Krueger, US Treasury Department Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, regularly praises the Build America Bond program as "an unsung hero of the economic and financial recovery." President Obama recently proposed an extension of the successful program which is set to expire at the end of the year.

This panel brings together leading figures from investment banks, rating agencies and research firms to assess the experience with Build America Bonds to date and also evaluates the proposed amendments to the program. In doing so, panelists will discuss how to rate and finance public works projects in a time of financial crisis. We will also discuss how the Build America Bond program relates to the traditional tax-exempt bond market and also to public-private-partnerships (P3s), and the proposed national infrastructure bank.

Chair
Michael B. Likosky
Senior Fellow, Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University
Member, OECD Working Group on P3s

Panelists
Matt Fabian | Managing Director
Municipal Market Advisors

George Friedlander | Head, Municipal Strategy
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

Bob Kurtter | Managing Director, US State and Local Government Ratings
Moody's Investor Service

Charles Peck | Public Finance Banking
Morgan Stanley