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.

We've reported that Monster, Palm, Intuit, EarthLink and MetroPCS bought $856 million in auction-rate securities. The credit market being what it is these days, these companies are having a hard time getting cash for their paper. Add Google to the bunch. According to a filing with the SEC, Google owns $259.6 million worth — or worthless — of auction-rate securities.