From Mr David Angluin.

Sir, Bill Gross (“Rescuing monolines is not a long-term solution”, February 8) is almost perversely unhelpful. No one would dream that a municipal bond insurer could bail out the state of California. Most “California municipals” are not issued by the great state itself, but by public bodies that deliver a great variety of services, the revenue authority for any one of which is no simple matter. For the bond buyer, this could pose a significant problem. What is one to make, for example, of a Healdsburg, California, 5.25 per cent maturing on December 1 2025 funded by a Sotoyome Community Development Agency tax allocation with a sinker of December 1 2020? And there are many thousands of such munis!