{"id":298643,"date":"2026-07-17T14:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298643\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:09:10","slug":"nycs-municipal-debt-nvestors-are-losing-patience-with-zohran-mamdani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298643\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s municipal debt nvestors are losing patience with Zohran Mamdani"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s luck in the municipal bond market<\/a> appears to be running out, On The Money has learned.<\/p>\n

After stabilizing or increasing a bit in the last couple of months, prices of New York City municipal bonds this month took a hit, with the \u201cyield\u201d \u2013 or return demanded by investors to compensate for various types of risk \u2013 spiking noticeably between July 3 and July 10, the latest available numbers show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The yield on a 10-year GO bond jumped to 3.34% from 3.28%, while the yield on a 10-year bond from what\u2019s known as the \u201ctransitional finance authority\u201d jumped 10 basis points \u2013 or hundredths of a percentage point, in bond-market speak \u2013 to 3.26%.<\/p>\n

After stabilizing or increasing a bit in the last couple of months, prices of New York City municipal bond prices this month took a hit, with the \u201cyield\u201d \u2013 or return demanded by investors to compensate for various types of risk \u2013 spiking noticeably. Jack Forbes \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n

Note that bond prices move in the opposite direction of yields. That\u2019s because when people bail on any form of debt, you need a higher yield to attract new buyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both GOs and so-called TFA bonds are the main ways that the city finances billions of dollars of capital improvements, roads, bridges, various infrastructure needs. They\u2019re the lifeblood of the city\u2019s economy. Given the city\u2019s size, its various capital needs make it among the top issuers of municipal debt in the country.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharles Gasparino<\/p>\n

Its debt load is around $125 billion. Roads keep needing repairs, so city officials need to keep finding buyers. The unusually high taxes here help with that since municipal bond returns are triple tax free for city residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But other factors often come into play, such as the level of interest rates and, of course, if the city will be ultimately able to make good on its obligations. On that last point, investors are starting to have their doubts with Mamdani in charge, Wall Street salesmen tell me.<\/p>\n

Thus, the markdowns we\u2019re starting to see on what should normally be debt that attacks constant investor interest.<\/p>\n

Given the New York City\u2019s size, its various capital needs make it among the top issuers of municipal debt in the country. City Hall, above. LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

What\u2019s particularly striking about the prices and yields is the sudden change in direction. Despite Mamdani\u2019s intentions to to turn the Big Apple into a socialist state, investors had been in a glass-half-full mode; city debt has actually been quite stable since the end of May with yields falling a bit, and prices rising a smidge after an initial steep decline just after Mamdani took office.<\/p>\n

One reason for recent optimism may be the fact that Mamdani \u2013 who by law must balance the city\u2019s budget under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles \u2014 did exactly that. His first fiscal year budget, a $126 billion monstrosity of spending and taxing, was aided by a bailout from Albany plus a pension-fund gimmick and his pied a terre tax<\/a>, not to mention low expectations. But it was balanced, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Now, reality might be setting in with investors. Our boy-mayor who is now learning how to govern after a brief stint in the state assembly and a career as a rapper, is continuing to demand ever-larger tax increases to pay for yet more socialism.<\/p>\n

Our boy-mayor who is now learning how to govern after a brief stint in the state assembly and a career as a rapper, is continuing to demand ever-larger tax increases to pay for yet more socialism. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n

People are leaving<\/a>. A recent Citizens Budget Commission study showed that even before he came to office promising the \u201cwarmth of collectivism\u201d on the backs of taxpayers, the millionaires \u2013 who pay most of the city\u2019s taxes \u2013 were fleeing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wall Street is booming of course, just see record bank earnings this week coming out of the likes of Bank Of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs<\/a>. But more and more of Wall Street is leaving as well, as evidenced by JPMorgan having fewer employees here than in the low-tax, business friendly state of Texas.<\/p>\n

Mamdani will eventually run out of other people\u2019s money to spend, increasing the likelihood of default, which is why investors might now be seeing the glass as increasingly half-empty.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s luck in the municipal bond market appears to be running out, On The Money has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18800,288,30751,57,9,56,63,65,64,11323,3417,82],"class_list":["post-298643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bonds","tag-business","tag-investors","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-on-the-money","tag-wall-street","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}