Like bank deposits, an MMF traditionally promises to redeem its shares at par, that is, at a constant net asset value. The MMF investors may thus have an incentive to run in a case where the assets may be insufficient to back up that claim – for instance, if there are concerns that the fund may have suffered serious credit losses on some assets.
For several important countries individually, the increase in unemployment and loss of real output was certainly equal to those in the most severe postWar recessions, but not significantly greater. Some respected scholars of US business cycles have suggested recently that it may be a bit soon to judge whether the recent period qualifies for the term “great recession”, at least in the US case.