Treasury four-week bills that yield zero percent have attracted $30 billion in assets, the Treasury Department announced. And when investors trade the paper with one another, sometimes they get negative yields. This is just further proof of investors’ keen aversion to risk. Treasury first issued the notes in 2001.

“No one wants to run the risk of any accidents,” Lou Crandall, chief economist with Wrightson ICAP told the Associated Press.

Likewise, money market fund yields have come down sharply. “There’s a price for safety,” noted Peter Crane, president of Crane Data. Not only are individual and institutional investors going to suffer in the long term if they remain in low-paying Treasuries, but shunning corporate debt will continue to stifle economic growth.