Quick Finance Tip – General Obligation Bonds and Quick Credit Callouts

​General Obligation (GO) Bonds do not have the ability to use monetary policy the way sovereign bonds can be tied to the sovereign debt. Therefore, an over reliance on one or two types of tax revenue can signal increased credit risk. It is important to note the following, which are pensions and other post-retirement obligations may not show up directly on a Balance Sheet for the GO issuer. Therefore, adding the unfunded pension and post-retirement obligations back into analysis reveals a more realistic picture of the debt.