Money-market funds are the weak link in the U.S. financial system, according to Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett. The funds remain vulnerable to runs despite some Securities and Exchange Commission reforms. In fact, the column claims that a U.S. government agency recently looked at what might happen to money funds if the eurozone's problems grew or some corporations defaulted on debt and “found so many funds would break the buck that the conclusions were considered too alarming to publish.”

The bigger changes that the SEC has recommended—moving to a floating net asset value and requiring funds to hold some cash reserves—have met with stiff opposition from the industry, amid expectations that corporate investors would respond to such changes by moving their money to bank accounts.

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