Bloomberg writes "Tax-Free Money Fund Yields Top Taxables by Record", which cites Crane Data's MFI Daily statistics showing tax-exempt money funds yielding twice taxables. (Yesterday, the Crane Tax-Exempt Money Fund Index's 1-day yield was 4.19% vs. 1.93% for our taxable Crane Money Fund Average. The article quotes Pete Crane, "I'll eat my hat if that's not a record." Bloomberg says, "Yields on variable-rate demand notes, state and local government debt favored by money funds, rose as high as 10 percent as banks that set the interest daily or weekly seek to avoid being overwhelmed by inventories of unsold securities.... It wasn't until Sept. 21 that the Treasury Department clarified in a statement that tax-exempt money funds would be eligible for the program. The lag in clarification may have led some investors to avoid the tax-exempt funds in favor of taxable ones, Crane said." See also Forbes' "Bank of NY Mellon to take charge on fund rescue".
