"He knew the money fund was not insured, as bank deposits are. "

If it's not guaranteed, what? You tell me. Diana B. Enriques in the NY Times:

"The national “bank holiday” that ushered in the New Deal in 1933 locked up the public’s cash for four days. The crisis that hit last month at the Reserve Fund, the nation’s oldest money market fund, has frozen hundreds of thousands of customer accounts for more than six weeks — with no sure end in sight.

At least 400,000 people, and perhaps as many as a million, can’t get access to their savings, a problem that has quietly persisted in spite of widely publicized federal efforts to restore confidence in money-fund investments.Some of these customers — who, like most Americans, assumed their money funds were as safe and accessible as bank accounts — are getting desperate."

So, lesson learned:

"The Reserve Fund’s prolonged crisis is particularly baffling to Michael Brunner, a research scientist in Columbus, N.J., who has been a customer since the fund first opened its doors in 1970. He knew the money fund was not insured, as bank deposits are. “But after 30 years, one doesn’t think it will go bad,” he said.

He can manage without his frozen assets, he added — but he is furious that he still has to, after so much time.

“People talk about this like it’s something that happened,” he said. “But this isn’t something that ‘happened.’ This is still happening. I still don’t have my money and I still don’t know what’s going to happen to it.”

We'll see what happens here, but not insured means just that. However, we'll see if the government intervenes.