Comments on: Treasury-only money market funds

By: Wanda Eckman

Wanda Eckman — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:03:57 +0000

Infinitely safer than banks cannot be true for basic checking accounts. Money market funds, even government-bond holding ones still pay a higher rate as they are not insured by the FDIC. It can, of course, be said that both risks, whether greater or smaller than the other, are essentially infinitesimal.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:18:35 +0000

Right, but the point here is not to have to rely on the government’s guarantees, other than of course its promise to pay back the principal on its short-term notes.

By: bltw

bltw — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:19:51 +0000

Careful about the difference between a Money market Fund (NOT FDIC insured) and a Money Market Deposit Account (FDIC insured).

From the FDIC website “You are probably familiar with the traditional types of bank accounts - checking, savings, trust, certificates of deposit (CDs), and IRA retirement accounts - that are insured by the FDIC. Banks also may offer what is called a money market deposit account, which earns interest at a rate set by the bank and usually limits the customer to a certain number of transactions within a stated time period. . . .Do not confuse a money market mutual fund with an FDIC-insured money market deposit account (described earlier)”

By: ignaatz

ignaatz — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:59:03 +0000

Ain’t this chart a revolting development:
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk106/ignaatz/TYCDS.jpg

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:47:07 +0000

The difference is that promises will be broken. The last to be broken will be the interest and principal on the government’s own debt, because once they do that, the game is over.

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:39:52 +0000

Most Money market funds are FDIC insured. Where does the FDIC go for money when the banks go bust and the FDIC runs out of money? To the Treasury and the ‘full faith and credit’ of the US govt., just like a treasury only MM account. What’s the difference?

By: PT

PT — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:23:38 +0000

For those curious about The American Century Capital Preservation Fund……From American Century themselves:
‘JPMorgan Chase Bank, 4 Metro Tech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11245, and Commerce
Bank, N.A., 1000 Walnut, Kansas City, Missouri 64105, each serves as custodian of
the funds assets. The custodians take no part in determining the investment policies
of the funds or in deciding which securities are purchased or sold by the funds.
The funds, however, may invest in certain obligations of the custodians and may
purchase or sell certain securities from or to the custodians. JPMorgan Chase Bank is
paid based on the monthly average of assets held in custody plus a transaction fee.’

By: Alexis

Alexis — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:09:14 +0000

Dreyfus is owned by BNY/Mellon, however a lot of these money market funds that market themselves as 100% US Treasuries are not — many of them contain repo agreements, CP, CDs, ABCP, Strips and various other “short term” notes. The HSBC U.S. Treasury Money Market Fund is 100% US Treasuries with no repo agreements or anything else. Be sure to read the Prospectus of whatever fund you are thinking of buying to be sure that it doesnt have any portion of these non-US Treasury securities.

By: AM

AM — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:40:35 +0000

actually, dreyfus is owned by bank of new york mellon but that’s also considered one of the top safe banks (for now).

By: JB

JB — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:41:13 +0000

Treasury only money market funds seem to be the smart play with cash at the moment, anyone have a recomendation on who to use for this? Anyone used and have feedback on Weiss Capital Securities?