Bloomberg reports:
Municipal borrowers exiting the U.S. auction-rate bond market as record failures push taxpayer costs higher.

Today, 386 auctions of publicly offered bonds resulted in 258 failures, or 67 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from four auction agents, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Wilmington Trust Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. The firms are responsible for receiving orders from broker- dealers and determining the winning rate. They also perform some administrative services for the borrower.

About two-thirds of auctions have failed per day since Feb. 15, according to data compiled by Bank of America and Bloomberg.

Just 44 failures were recorded between 1984, when the market was created, and the end of last year, Moody's Investors Service said in a Feb. 19 report.