The New York Times writes "Breaking a Buck, Maybe, but Not Taxpayers' Backs". The Gretchen Morgenson column says, "Mark Aug. 29 on your calendar. It's the day all of us could end up on the hook for a big future bailout. The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to vote that day on a proposal that would limit taxpayers' exposure to the $2.6 trillion world of money market mutual funds. The plan would reduce the odds of having to rescue teetering funds when the next financial crisis comes -- and it will. Money market funds are a huge cog in the nation's financial machinery. Many people think that these funds are as safe as federally insured bank deposits. In most cases, they aren't. But then, in the dark days of 2008, a run on one fund, Reserve Primary, reverberated in the industry. Investors fled, and the Treasury stepped in. It earmarked $50 billion to protect money market funds and to prevent them from "breaking the buck," or having their shares fall below the sacrosanct $1 net asset value. Of course, if the government rides to the rescue once, the thinking goes, it will surely do so again. But the S.E.C. has a plan to make money market funds safer, at least for taxpayers. It has proposed that funds set aside enough capital to withstand future runs. It has also suggested that funds' share prices reflect investment reality. Right now, prices are reported daily as $1, regardless of gyrations in funds' investments."
