Buyers Be Where?

In the long run it’s an outstanding idea, Anthony Carfang, of Treasury Strategies, a consultancy, says of the potential for secondary markets. “”But in the short run I don’t think large swaths of corporate America are going to want to revalue the entire $300 billion auction-rate securities market based on a secondary market.”” Carfang says that the fundamental problem with the current market situation is that the wrong types of investors are holding these securities. “”These same securities buried in a pension plan or bond fund or insurance company portfolio would be great,”” he says. The key is to get them into the correct hands so that demand ensues and the market revives itself.