September 11, 2009
I strongly support the SEC proposals aimed at requiring money market funds to invest ONLY in securities of the highest quality and to publish lists of their holdings more frequently.
I understand that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many of its members object to this proposal because of their belief that the inability of money market funds to purchase their debt instruments will result in their incurrence of a higher cost of funds, the added expense of which will necessarily be passed on to their customers. However, I do not believe that money market funds were created for the purpose of providing low interest loans to corporations or of protecting consumers from higher product prices, nor should they be. Rather, I believe the purpose was to provide COMPLETELY SAFE repositories for short term funds. That, at least, is the thought behind my own use of money market funds and I have been most unnerved by the recent threats of runs on money market funds, the need for government guarantees of such funds, and the imminent lapse of such government guarantees.
I urge the SEC to stay the course with their current proposals.