Here's an article Karl Deeter and I have just published in the Sunday Business Post. Expect much more from us on this municipal bond idea.
In the long run, Ireland faces two apparently unrelated challenges. First, our infrastructural deficit will grow due to repeated government cutbacks. Secondly, as our population ages, our society will struggle to pay for pensions of a greyer society.
The two problems of pensions provision, and infrastructural investment, are intertwined.
They can both be alleviated using municipal bonds.
In essence, individuals buy bonds issued by the government or even a local authority, which the government will honour in, say,45 years or longer, when the individual retires. The government uses the flow of funds from the bonds to build roads, bridges and levies today.
read the rest here: Municipal bonds could be the solution to many problems | The Post.
Citizens already buy government bonds. How would your idea be different ?
True, but in that instance funds flow to the government via the NTMA. In this case, the funds flow to local authorities for public-good related projects. There are loads of positive benefits to tying taxation and spending to a locality, one of them being simple political buy-in by local stakeholders. But expect lots more on this Fergus, I promise a more thought out (and costed) exercise before too long.