Unlike the credit activities of some regulated banks, these funds do not trade in and out of speculative securities. And, unlike regulated banks making long-term loans of all types using equity leveraged with taxpayer-backed deposits, money-market mutual funds invest 100% of shareholder equity into high-grade credits that mature in days, not years.

Corporate and individual investors in these funds are aware that their yields do not reflect the existence of a federal government guarantee, and prospectus disclosures on this point are clear.

A floating NAV, which the Journal’s Money and Investing section called the “nuclear option,” would not even address its advocates’ putative concerns and would reposition more investor dollars into taxpayer-insured banks with a failure rate hundreds of times greater than money-market funds.

Paul S. Atkins

Washington

Mr. Atkins was a SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008.