Smart people like me called our brokers and bought t-bills in a flight for safety because we didn't want to wake up the next day and find out the money funds were frozen up. T-bill rates dropped close to zero. Money funds have to sell securities to raise cash for redemption and this crushing sell order volume by the funds could freeze the market.
So, while I love to blame George Soros for everything (and I think he was somehow involved because he made his first billion $$ doing this to the British pound)< I think the stampede to t-bills was the reason the MM funds saw sucha huge withdrawal that day.
This could happen again, especially with ol Floppy Ears running around the country preaching doom and gloom in an effort to get his emergency communist program passed by a clueless Congress and a complacent media.
EXACTLY. Thank you. You’re one of the thousands I just described. You understood that you might be exposed to the Lehman melt-down and while you didn’t know if you were going to suffer as a result of Lehman’s collapse, you didn’t know how much exposure you might have, you were taking no chances.
Sell first, ask questions later. And Geo. Soros was nowhere in sight.