Peter Rizzo, senior director at ratings firm Standard & Poor's, said many of the money funds hit by a rush of redemptions had investments tied to financial sector firms that had far healthier balance sheets than Lehman Brothers and other fallen financial firms. But investors pulled out from the funds anyway, he said.

"What made things worse was people panicking and pulling out money quickly, and forcing fund managers to sell quickly at losses," Rizzo said.

"If you yell 'fire' in a theater," he added, "people will run."

Authorities promised to be vigilant for price gouging during the gas shortage, but costs still shot up by an average of about 50 cents in a matter of days to more than $4 per gallon around Nashville and Atlanta. The current national average is about $3.68, according to the AAA auto club.

The runs on gasoline and money-market funds aren't the only recent examples of fear-induced economic behavior.

The U.S. Mint was forced last week to suspend sales of its popular American Buffalo 24-karat gold coins because it couldn't keep up with investors' soaring demand for commodities and other asset classes deemed to be safe.

And earlier this year, customers stockpiled imported Thai jasmine, Indian basmati and long grain white rice in response to soaring prices. That caused the country's two biggest warehouse chains, which cater heavily to small businesses like restaurants, to impose limits on bulk purchases.

The move was criticized by officials in Thailand, the world's No. 1 rice exporter, as having more to do with panic than any supply shortages.

Although the fuel situation has eased somewhat, the short supply in the Southeast continued into the weekend despite rising fuel production at refineries that had been shut down by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and government officials' attempts to assure drivers that there is enough gasoline for everyone — just not enough for everyone to be riding on a full tank at all times.

"People are freaking out," said landscaper Dennis McDonald, 50, after waiting to pump 10 gallons of gas into his pickup in Woodstock, Ga.

Robert Prechter, a market forecaster and president of The Socionomics Institute in Gainesville, Ga., said in an e-mail that the response in Nashville and other cities to even temporary shortages of gasoline should have been expected.

"Topping off is simply a rational reaction to disrupted supplies," he said. "So it is incorrect to charge everyday people with thoughtless herding in this case."

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Associated Press Writers Rose French in Nashville, Greg Bluestein in Woodstock, Ga., and Mark Jewell in Boston contributed to this report.