Investors also see the fall in new bond issues during February as a blip.

WSJ: Companies Slow Down Their Euro Bond Sales

Muni defaults are actually down sharply this year and new bond issues have perked up in recent months, says Municipal Market Advisors.

FORBES: Behind Those Scary Municipal Bond Headlines

Another electronic foray, E-Offerings, handles new bond issues.

FORBES: Fear, Greed And Technology

Faint though it is, there is a glimmer of hope in financial markets: interest rates on short-term loans between banks and on longer-term corporate debt have fallen notably since the autumn, and there has been a flood of new bond issues.

ECONOMIST: The economy

Throughout, the customer did 90% of the talking, musing aloud as he analyzed the coupons, maturity dates, prices he had paid for older issues, and the price he hoped to pay for the new bond.

FORBES: Taped Phone Conversations Discredit Customer And Exonerate Stockbroker

Real town meetings--I mean the old-fashioned kind in which a town's voting population meets annually to bicker, gossip, elect councilmen, vote on bond issues--are anachronisms today, surviving only in a few eccentric backwaters of Ye Olde New England.

CNN: Essay: Ye Olde Town Gimmick