The fund was paying a good interest rate, so it was a reasonable thing to do, if you didn’t know that Lehman was gambling, not investing, the money.

When the crisis hit, the account was frozen. The smaller jurisdictions couldn’t get their money to make payroll or pay their utilities, and there was no clear time limit on how long their money would be tied up. They couldn’t simply get a short term loan, and any loan takes months because of the laws in place.

People didn’t receive their checks, and in the case of those with direct deposit, there were thousands of over-draft charged by banks, because people assumed the deposits were made. It was a mess all over the state.

No impartial, financial manager would have allowed a client to put that much money in a single investment that was as risky as the Lehman fund that the state bought into.

None of the politicians showed any contrition, because Bush and Gallagher were out of office, and Charlie Crist, who was attorney general at the time of the decision, essentially claimed ignorance. The fund manager resigned, but that was a scapegoat move.

Alex Sink, the current chief financial officer and a candidate for governor, was a banker before entering politics. She was an old school banker, and didn’t believe in “modern innovations in finance” like derivatives. She is trying to put things on a financially conservative footing, but that would interfere with using the fund to attract support for campaigns, or to reward support.

Sorry to rant, but this stuff still has the ability to piss me off.