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Worries About Money Funds "Appear Quite Overblown" In New Barron's. In his second blow for sanity in 4 weeks, Barron's Jack Willoughby describes why money market mutual funds won't be "sunk by the mess" involving structured investment vehicles, or SIVs. The piece, "Staying Afloat in a Sea of Worry," says, "But worries about one important sector -- money market funds -- appear quite overblown.... [T]here's no evidence of a widespread or calamitous problem." He cites Bank of America Securities analyst Michael Hecht's recent reports on SIV exposure, "The major money-market funds are exposed far less to structured investment vehicles ... than some investors fear.... By August, the exposure will be nada." It also quotes our Peter Crane, "Money funds have come under some pressure, and there are still some more troubles to come, but they've fared quite well, compared with other investment vehicles. The losses, when they are finally tallied, will be in the millions, not in the billions that are predicted." Barron's recaps the nine protective actions by money fund advisors to date, and shares BoA's "SIV Wind-Down" exposure table. It cite's Hecht's call to buy asset managers with heavy money fund exposure, including Federated Investors (FII), BlackRock, Legg Mason, and Schwab.
