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Marketplace Music

Playlist: Muni-bonds and mortgages

Katharine Crnko Mar 9, 2011

Posted by Katharine Crnko

For Marketplace Morning Report, Wednesday March 9, 2011

Stock prices jumped yesterday on the announcement that Sprint and T-Mobile resumed discussions of a merger. A merger of the two companies would combine the third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless providers.

Conservative think tanks say federal employees are overpaid in comparison to their private sector peers. The chief of the Office of Personnel Management, however, says such comparisons are often misleading.

“Green chemistry” was introduced more than two decades ago, but now one of its founders is trying to prove its profitability along with its usefulness.

Despite a global freeze on Muammar Gaddafi’s assets, analysts believe Libya is making at least $150 million a week in oil profits. The U.K. says it has a solution to benefit the Libyan people.

Ivory Coast’s incumbent leader Laurent Gdagbo has effectively nationalized the country’s cocoa farms — something chocolate lovers should be worried about.

Mark Stevenson, the author of “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future,” discusses how to remain positive about what’s ahead.

Federal stimulus money would make up for state education cuts, but some legislators want to give it back and deal with the budget cuts now, not later.

The good news from the Mortgage Bankers Association comes just ahead of a Senate hearing on the state of the housing market.

New data from Thompson Reuters today shows municipal bond issuance is headed for the worst quarter in 11 years. Richard DeKaser, an analyst with the Parthenon Group, explains how increasing rates and the end of the Build America Bonds program have affected the market.

Muhammad Yunus won a Nobel Peace Prize for getting microfinance off the ground and into the mainstream. But after Yunus was fired due to Bangladesh’s mandatory retirement age, many question the future of micro-credit loans.

Here are the songs we played:

  • Roots Princess Dub — Linval ThompsonBuy
  • Dream Operator — Talking headsBuy
  • Under Cover of Darkness — The StrokesBuy
  • Gotta Be Something — D-TensionBuy
  • Looking Good — The Hard to Get

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