BRADENTON, Fla. — Over the past two months, Palm Beach County withdrew $60 million it had invested in the Florida State Board of Administration’s local government investment pool because of concerns about the lack of liquidity for investments tied to subprime mortgages. Although the amount it had invested in the SBA pool represented a small amount of the county’s $2 billion investment portfolio, which is managed in-house, the “safe” investment alternatives, such as money market funds, are earning less. “We had not used [money market funds] in a couple of years because the SBA was paying a much higher interest rate,” said Sharon Bock, Palm Beach County’s elected clerk and comptroller, noting that investments now are earning about 1% less than the SBA offered.Bock said county investment officials in September began questioning what exposure the SBA had in subprime investments. “I just know we felt uncomfortable with the information we were getting from them and that’s what caused us to begin our withdrawals,” said Bock, whose investment managers made the last withdrawal last Wednesday, just a day before the SBA froze withdrawals and deposits from the pool.“Never in a million years did we think they’d suspend withdrawals,” Bock said. The action came after more than $10 billion was withdrawn in the last two weeks alone from the $27.1 billion pool, despite attempts by state money managers to control rumors with a
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