Response to the following questions:
1. What is a mutual fund? In what sense is it a financial institution?
2. What benefits do mutual funds have for individual investors?
3. What are money market mutual funds? In what assets do these funds typically invest? What factors caused the strong growth in this type of fund from 1992 through 2007?
4. What are long-term mutual funds? In what assets do these funds usually invest? What factors caused the strong growth in this type of fund during the 1990s and the decline in growth in the early and late 2000s?