(Excerpt from above link)
“Subprime Infects $300 Billion of Money Market Funds, Hikes Risk
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Money market funds were invented 37 years ago to offer investors better returns than bank savings accounts while providing a high degree of safety. Most of the $2.5 trillion sitting in these funds is invested in such assets as U.S. Treasury bills, certificates of deposit and short-term commercial debt.
Unlike bank accounts, money market funds aren’t insured by the federal government. They almost never fail.
Unbeknownst to most investors, some of the largest money market funds today are putting part of their cash into one of the riskiest debt investments in the world: collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgage loans………”
