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30 I. Options For Stashing Cash WHAT IF L ets run through several what if scenarios that may impact your cash management options. Negative Interest Rates If negative interest rates move from Europe and Japan to your markets you may find that rollovers of cash and short-term fixed in- come run the risk of yielding zero or negative returns. This could impact your bank deposits and CDs bank and brokerage money markets and short-term fixed income. If you are depending on funds and ETFs they will face the same rollover challenge. The question at that point will be where will you go Owning individual notes and bonds in the intermediate term or long maturities will protect you from rollover interest risks faced by cash holdings or funds. If interest rates start to rise however longer maturities carry principal risk. If the US Treasury markets go to negative interest rates there will be so many profound implications for numerous sectors of the do- mestic and global economy that it is difficult to speculate what might happen. Policymakers will be hoping that funds will be forced out of cash into lending and investing at the same time that the United States will be facing ongoing budget cuts. Predicting the impact that this change may have on com- modities real estate and equity markets will be a significant challenge. Historically the response to government in- tervention that taxes savers to subsidize itself is to decrease trust which decreases investment and liquidity. Redemptions or Runs on Money Market Funds Concerns regarding negative interest rates or liquidity and credit issues in the short- term markets could trigger runs on money market funds. In this case you will want to ensure that you are with the strongest sponsors and custodians and that you lean towards FDIC-insured money markets or money markets that concentrate in the highest possible credits. Runs on Banks You will want to make sure that you are in banks that are fundamentally sound and well managed. Please avoid or chose with care banks and custodians that are affiliated with proprietary trading and derivatives operations that may cause financial problems and con- flicts-of-interest relative to customer accounts. If your deposits are covered by FDIC insur- ance there is no reason to seriously worry about bail-ins at this time unless US politics trigger a change in policies or rules. Every indication to date is that the deep state and regulators continue to want the FDIC system to work well. Needless to say you will want to avoid banks that are likely to experience bail-ins. Your FDIC insurance may work but you will lose time and sleep if you have to depend on your deposit insurance. Runs on ETFs This one concerns me. The ETF industry is young and it has attracted significant funds because it offers lower expenses and in many cases greater liquidity than mutual funds. However it is untested in periods when