The free ride is ending for money-market funds

(AP file Photo)

(Bloomberg View) — Of all the outrages endured during the financial crisis, perhaps the most perplexing involved money-market mutual funds. In an example of moral hazard writ large, this uninsured risk instrument — with $2.57 trillion in assets — somehow became too big to fail. Five years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission is finally taking steps to address this.

Money-market funds invest in a variety of short-term securities whose values fluctuate. You know, kinda like everything else that trades on a market. However, the funds’ net asset value, and thus the share price, was always $1, regardless of what the underlying assets were really worth.