11.   Municipalities generally set up investment guidelines that bar their officials from investing public funds in risky securities, such as IOs and inverse IOs.

12.   Similarly, publicly held companies that have been less than forthcoming about their risky securities positions are also vulnerable to suits, Berman said.

13.   The county has accused Merrill of selling it risky securities that fell outside its investment guidelines and of improperly acting as an adviser to former County Treasurer Robert Citron.

14.   The suit alleges Merrill violated state and federal laws in selling the county billions of dollars worth of risky derivative securities.

15.   They traded risky securities for safer ones, while trying to make an accurate accounting of all the money in the fund.

16.   Those suits, several of which have been settled recently, generally accuse brokerage firms of selling risky securities to the county.

17.   Though risky securities usually command a higher yield than Treasury securities, which are backed by the government, the differences in those yields grew earlier this year.

18.   Why would folks load up on risky securities?

19.   Black was convicted of persuading the districts in Pennsylvania and Harford County, Md., to invest school construction money into the risky securities.