If there's any silver lining to the jitters of Wall Street, the state of California may have found it.

The state treasurer's office has decided to up the total size of its initial sale of revenue anticipation notes (RANs) from $4 billion to $4.5 billion. The reason: they appear to be selling like hotcakes.

As of late afternoon, some $3.8 billion in RANs had already been snapped up by investors; that's virtually all of what state finance officials had hoped to sell by the end of the week... now bought in just two days.

Most of the investors appear to be selecting the RAN that comes due on June 22 of next year, probably because it also comes with a higher interest rate, or yield: 4.25% versus 3.75% yield for RANs that the state will pay off on May 20, 2009.

Final numbers for the day are pending, but the news is probably going to ease the immediate fiscal fears of Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders, who are scheduled to convene via conference call this afternoon. Of course, the state's overfall financial picture continues to be gloomy; the good news from Wall Street simply means there's no end-of-the-month scramble to pay the bills.

The bleak week on the Street may have pushed more investors away from stocks and into a (seemingly) sure bet like state government notes. There's at least some anecdotal evidence of investors pushing their cash into other safe places that will pay off, with interest, in the near future.

Whatever the reason, the market is being kind to California state government... and not a moment too soon.