Monday's Wall Street Journal contains the editorial "Republicans Against Reform". It says, "Republicans claim to oppose the political favoritism of the Obama Administration, but that isn't always the case. Consider the effort in Congress to defend the taxpayer-protected business model of money-market mutual funds. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro has been trying to change money-fund rules to protect taxpayers from bailouts like the ones they underwrote in 2008. But last week Jo Ann Emerson (R., Mo.), a baron at the House Appropriations Committee, added a provision in a funding bill that would require the SEC to study the issue again. The idea is to push any reform past the election and perhaps to a new SEC chairman. Taxpayers don't need another study to confirm that they shouldn't have to stand behind this market. Ms. Schapiro is trying to fix a current SEC rule that allows money funds to use an accounting fiction and pretend that their net asset values never change, even though the prices of their underlying securities do fluctuate. This accounting gimmick has allowed fund operators to present to investors a picture of stability, as if money funds are as safe as bank accounts."
