Embracing Wild Dividends

Breaking the buck in the money market world was akin to failure. People invested in money markets because they wanted the stability of cash with the premium yields of bonds. The industry spent years convincing them this was doable. Once investors learned it wasn't, and that their investments could in fact lose value, they rushed for the doors. Fast. But as Joe Nocera of the New York Times wrote in 2009, this was hardly a case of reckless management. "When you think about it," he wrote, "the Reserve Fund didn't really 'collapse.' Rather, one of its securities defaulted and it lost a few pennies for its investors. It happens. "... Read more