I think you should change this sentence.
Not just in your experience, but in world history, money market funds have NEVER lost money. So its not that they rarely or not very often lose money. They have historically never lost money. But banks have failed. So much for FDIC which is basically a worthless false sense of comfort.

Depending on your scenario, you may have better luck simply using an online savings account like HSBCdirect or EmigrantDirect. The reason is that there is no minimum balance, which many of the CDs require for the best rates, and their rates are just as good if not better than the short-term CDs.

The one drawback is that you would be sacrificing the ability to lock-in your rate for 6 months. But this is only a negative if you anticipate rates decreasing in the next 6 months.

GE Interest Plus

Amount Rate Yield
Less than $15k 4.80 4.91
$15k – $49,999 5.05 5.17
$50k and more 5.30 5.43

Countrywide

Amount APY
$1 – $9,999 = 4.00%
$10,000 – $49,999 = 5.25%
$50,000 – $2,499,999 = 5.40%
$2,500,000 + = 1.50%

After the promotional period, the HSBC rate goes back to 5.05%. This is not bad at all. I guess it really depends on how much you have to invest / risk tolerance, etc. If you don’t need the money anytime soon, there are some pretty good CDs out there paying better than either (ex: 5.75% for a 6 mo CD).

For smaller balances, you aren’t missing much by going with HSBC or Emigrant. I’ve posted about my switch to HSBC and right now I am taking advantage of their 6.0% APY promotion through the end of April.

http://geinterestplus.com/interestplus/ – Currently a 5.43% Yield for balances over $50K. This is invested in unsecured senior debt of GE Capital (not FDIC insured – read prospectus).

https://bank.countrywide.com/scontent.aspx?cmtag=Content-SavingsLink – currently 5.40% Yield for balances over $50K. This is FDIC insured.