10/17/08 art class today a little charles rennie macintosh tradition, pen and wash of plants. fun. going to do more over the weekend. metro to lunch downtown. took an hour as a switch was out. talked to trader on metro who said her highly leveraged funds were shrinking as people switch out. Also, that she could not buy 5 year treasuries, they were simply no longer available. Guess people buying 5 year treasuries as a substitute for t bills, probably paying a little more and can keep them for 5 years if necessary. The funds she described that her company was running sounded ridiculous, combining swaps, credit default instruments and treasuries, with treasuries being 20 percent of the funds. weird.
