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I asked two CFOs of major Valley startups recently what they thought of auction-rate securities, the once-safe, now toxic instruments gumming up corporate America's balance sheets. One thought they were still a good investment, and bragged about the interest rate he was getting. The other thought startups had no business chasing higher returns by tying up cash. That disagreement neatly captures the fuss that the Wall Street Journal describes in a new article. It's a confusing subject on which smart people can disagree. But where there's room for disagreement, there's also room for delusion.

That's the only explanation I can think of for quotes by Dario Sacomani, the CFO of chipmaker Spansion, in the article. He defends Spansion's $122 million portfolio of auction-rates as "triple-A," backed by student loans. Moody's has cut Spansion's credit rating to junk, and low junk at that; in recent sales, student-loan bond securities have sold at a 30 percent discount to face value.