In turbulent times like these, cash is truly king – but in what form exactly? For many Americans, ready liquidity means a low or no-interest checking account or a money market mutual fund. The latter, while not federally-insured, are seen as safe and boring as they come, maintaining a steady net asset value of one dollar. That is why, amid all the shocking headlines of the last several days, the news that a fund of industry pioneer Reserve Management Corporation has “broken the buck” and suspended redemptions for a week is a shock.

It expects to return 97 cents on the dollar, marking only the second such failure in the 37-year history of the asset class. It is too soon to tell whether holders of the thousands of healthy funds will shift their assets or just shrug and pile more money into them. Based on precedent – the only other case was in 1994 when a fund broke the buck by returning 96 cents on the dollar – the answer is that there will be no panic. Then again, so many recent events have been unprecedented this is far from certain.