On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:28:01 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:12:08 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:06:19 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

The money market fund in mine was always a couple points lower than
"free market" rates were offering.

It's all about risk/reward. I'll bet your 401k money market funds
were being put to work in less risky markets.

Probably cost a point just for the fund manager vigorish these
401k's extract. Very little transparency with these funds, and they
can skim as well as any mob casino operator.

That's not true at all. If you drop into a fund which participates in
T-bills or muni, Fed funds or Fed Short Term, that's very transparent
- has to be by it's base function.

Even funds that do commercial paper or chase LIBOR spreads have to be
transparent. I'm not sure what you are talking about with "skimming".

My main complaint as I neared retirement was their was no low-risk
(read FDIC) place for my retirement money. Even money markets can go
negative, or so I was told.

Sure there is - it's called a savings account. Which, when you think
about it, is a money market fund that isn't transparent.

That's why it's insured. :)

But you may be right. After all most of my IRA CD money was tied up
in the mortgage market. Though it's FDIC insured, I was pleased
when BOC picked up Countrywide. Don't savor the thought
of going through the FDIC to get my retirement money...but it still
might happen. Who the hell knows?

FDIC is not a panacea for investing or any sort of risk/reward
arbitrage. Its looks good, but it's only so much per depositor - for
any real money, you'd have to have seperate accounts at seperate banks
which can be a nightmare - in particular if you don't actively manage
the accounts.

And it's only good for $100K per.