Analysts forecast a 20 percent decline on average in earnings from the six biggest U.S. banks, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. Some banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), are expected to report the worst results in over ten years. [...] Investors will get some insight on Wednesday, when earnings season kicks off with JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the country's largest bank. That will be followed by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) on Thursday, Citigroup Inc (C.N) on Friday, and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, in the following week.

Just about every major banker and finance minister in the world is meeting in Washington, DC, this week, following two rushed, secretive meetings of the Federal Reserve and another instantaneous and rare meeting between the Fed Chair and the president of the United States. These and other emergency bank meetings around the world cause one to wonder what is going down. Let’s start with a bullet list of the week’s big-bank events:
* The Federal Reserve Board of Governors just held an “expedited special meeting” on Monday in closed-door session.
* The White House made an immediate announcement that the president was going to meet with Fed Chair Janet Yellen right after Monday’s special meeting and that Vice President Biden would be joining them.
* The Federal Reserve very shortly posted an announcement of another expedited closed-door meeting for Tuesday for the specific purpose of “bank supervision.”
* A G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central-bank heads starts in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, too, and continues through Wednesday.
* Then on Thursday the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund meet in Washington.
* The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta just revised US GDP growth for the first quarter to the precipice of recession at 0.1%.
* US banks are widely expected this week to report their worst quarter financially since the start of the Great Recession.
* The European Union’s new “bail-in” procedures for failing banks were employed for the first time with Austrian bank Heta Asset Resolution AG.
* Italy’s minister of finance called an emergency meeting of Italian bankers to engage “last resort” measures for dealing with 360-billion euros of bad loans in banks that have only 50 billion in capital.

First, given the steepness of the municipal bond yield curve, he thinks Market Vectors AMT-Free Interm Muni (ITM) makes sense since investors will benefit from higher yields in this steep part of the yield curve. But if the Federal Reserve starts to seem like it will raise interest rates again soon, the municipal yield curve is likely to flatten. At that point, he thinks it will make sense for investors to move out to a longer duration ETF like Market Vectors AMT-Free Long Muni (MLN).

It is important to understand that seasonal shifts in supply and changes in the yield curve can impact a municipal bond’s total return and present investors with tactical opportunities. For the first quarter, according to Barclay’s, their Municipal Bond Index returned a positive 1.67%. Taking into consideration the seasonal supply/demand trends that have prevailed during the second quarter for the last 15 years suggest that favorable entry points may potentially become available.

Hi, Mona.
Because risk moderation is generally tax-inefficient and for some of the asset classes that interest me (Asia income, for example) there aren't any tax-efficient vehicles. You could try to invest in low-beta stocks and a low-turnover fund, but that's sort of working at the edges of risk reduction.
So I keep good records, absorb the tax hit now and might book a taxable loss (as in the case of Artisan Small Cap Value) when I eventually sell.
Cheers,
David

BRUFX vs OAKBX