The Federal Reserve introduced a a shiny new toy today, the "Money Market Investor Funding Facility" (MMIFF), which will help shore up money-market mutual funds — those investment funds that until recently everyone saw as totally safe — by buying several forms of short-term debt, including certificates of deposit and commercial paper, issued by highly-rated financial institutions. Well, not exactly buying. They're encouraging those in the private sector to set up "special purpose vehicles" to buy the eligible money-market instruments, which MIFF will then back. [Federal Reserve.gov; NYT if you want English]