We're all used to hearing about how municipal bonds almost never, ever default.
But good data on defaults is hard to come by. Over at Reuters Muniland blog, Cate Long has produced a chart based on information from Income Securities Advisor. As you can see, it shows more than 50 defaults in the first half of 2010. All told, it looks like there were 84 defaults last year.
This is surprising, because Standard & Poor's says there were just three defaults last year. Fitch says there was just one.