New Tobacco settlement BUT cigarette consumption keeps falling

[J P Sousa]

So states are squeezing cigarette companies, spending the money and at the same time trying to reduce cigarette consumption.

Maybe this could go in mind numbing stupidity but.....

States, counties and cities have sold nearly $40 billion of bonds backed by the more than $200 billion in payments that U.S. cigarette makers agreed to make to them over time.


  So far in 2013, returns on tobacco bonds have largely outperformed the rest of the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market despite concerns expressed by credit rating agencies about the decline in tobacco consumption.

In July Moody's investors service warned that the majority of tobacco bonds sold by U.S. states, counties and cities will default if cigarette consumption keeps falling at a 3 percent to 4 percent annual pace.

In December, California and New York's Nassau County tapped reserve for payments on three different series of state tobacco bonds due to insufficient tobacco settlement revenue.
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/19/tobacco-states-settlement-idUSL1E8NIH8J20121219?type=companyNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FcompanyNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Company+News%29
 

[DefiantSix]

In December, California and New York's Nassau County tapped reserve for payments on three different series of state tobacco bonds due to insufficient tobacco settlement revenue.

It's not "INSUFFICIENT TOBACCO SETTLEMENT REVENUE", it's "RUINOUS SPENDING SPREES ON THE PART OF POLITICIANS".