Cash is flowing into short-term U.S. government debt funds at the fastest pace in more than six months, just when you might expect investors to be running for the exits.
Demand is surging even as lawmakers wrangle with a looming debt-ceiling deadline and investors become concerned about Treasury missing payments on the securities held in most of the funds. More than $75 billion has been deposited in government money-market funds in the four weeks ended Aug. 16, compared with outflows of about $18.5 billion from U.S. exchanged-traded and mutual funds, Investment Company Institute data show.
