If true, this was part of a flight to government-guaranteed debt such as US Treasuries and away from debt such as corporate and municipal bonds. This has been called the flight to 'quality,' but of course the only quality inherent in government debt is that the government can always print more money rather than defaulting. Of course, once a substantial block of assets receives this guarantee, investors demand a premium for debt that _lacks_ this guarantee. Existing corporate bonds didn't have this premium, so everyone wanted rid of them once the government expanded guarantees to cover nearly everything but corporate debt. And since money market funds held substantial portfolios of corporate bonds, investors wanted their money out of money market funds.
>government can always print more money rather than defaulting
That's not all powerful nations governments can do. The militaries of countries are not only there for defense, they have always been to guard the "interests" of countries as well as their people. Everyone seems to forget this (and it would seem immoral today to use military to further interests beyond life and liberty, yet history shows that has always been the case).
See also this contemporaneous piece:
http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/flight-to-quality...