I read an interesting blog by Felix Salmon on Portfolio.com about whether or not there is a future for auction-rate securities. He asked a couple of pertinent questions to Floyd Newton, a partner in King & Spalding's finance practice. "Floyd has a long history in the auction-rate market, and seems to know what he's talking about."

His first question: Will the new electronic trading platform being launched by Restricted Stock Partners is likely to help bring liquidity back to the market? Floyd says no...check out the blog for the full response.

His second questions: Is John Carney right when he says that auction-rate securities never had much of a market to begin with, and were always supported by the broker-dealers? Floyd's unsure about that as well...check out the blog for the full response.

"Overall, then, it seems that the market used to be healthy, once upon a time, but that it's now a thing of the past - and nothing, not even a swanky new electronic trading platform, is likely to save it."