It is estimated that municipal bond issuance in the United States was about US$425 billion in 2007.8 This fell by about 9 percent in 2008, to US$385 billion. By November 2009, issuance was about 9 percent below the 2008 level (see Figure 5).
There has also recently been a considerable increase in the price of bonds. Historically, the difference in spread between an AAA-rated bond and a BBB-rated bond was around 50 basis points, but this difference has now increased fourfold, to around 200 basis points.