MarketWatch columnist Chuck Jaffe named Money Market Funds his "Stupid investment of the week" once again. The article, entitled, "Money funds offer no returns and no insurance," says, "As the anniversary of this money-market scare passed this week, investors could rest easy about what was being held in their money funds, because the entire genre of funds is currently returning so little that it’s practically irrelevant, and the Stupid Investment of the Week.... According to Crane Data, which tracks money-fund returns, nearly one in four taxable money funds has a current yield of 0.00%. More than 55% of that universe of taxable money funds -- 461 out of 818 issues -- has a yield under 0.01%. Of course, even if you do your homework and go for the highest-yielding money funds instead of one of those no-return stinkers, your 'extra' return on a $10,000 investment would be $33 a year. In short, from top to bottom, money funds are a bad idea." Jaffe also writes "Six investing lessons from Lehman's fall," which says, "The Wall Street community is not anxious to celebrate the second anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, other than to signify that a significant amount of time has passed since one of its darkest hours. It wishes the news media, and the public, would forget the excesses that led to the near-collapse of the financial world. But investors can't afford to forget, because there are too many lessons that came to light in the crisis, and which are more easily seen and remembered today." In other news, see "SEC Proposes Measures to Enhance Short-Term Borrowing Disclosure to Investors."
