"Money Market Mutual Fund Assets"
The latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $17.16 billion to $2.605 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 28, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds decreased by $4.26 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $10.35 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $2.55 billion." Money funds have lost assets for 5 straight weeks (-$60.5 billion) and are at their lowest level since the debt ceiling crisis hit on Aug. 3, 2011. Year-to-date, assets are down $90 billion, or 3.3%. In other news, ICI responded to a recent CFO Journal piece "Floating NAV Money-Market Funds Don't Float Much", saying, "At ICI, the national trade association for mutual funds, we agree that "floating" money market funds are not very likely to float in value very much, if at all. The high-quality, short-term securities that money market funds hold do not fluctuate significantly in value. That's not a cause to accept the SEC's proposals for "floating" funds, however. This blog item misses a key point: "floating" funds that don't actually float will bring very high costs for investors, funds, and the economy -- without providing any of the benefits that regulators are seeking. They won't change investor behavior or reduce systemic risk. High costs and zero benefits are a bad deal all around."
