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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Real Man who wrote (19627)	4/11/2009 2:20:36 PM
From: NOW	Respond to of 71454

i posted that a couple of days ago but thanks for the repost it is the single best piece of writing on this whole mess in a year

To: Real Man who wrote (19627)	4/12/2009 7:13:35 AM
From: zamboz	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71454

Black Swan of Black Swans? Interesting piece using publicly traded quants as indicator. Jesse has it linked from his site. rgemonitor.com

To: Real Man who wrote (19627)	4/22/2009 5:39:23 PM
From: axial	Respond to of 71454

CDS market quickly shrinking [ - finally] Value of credit default swaps, blamed for the world's financial upheaval, tanks; other derivatives' values fall in lock step The market for credit default swaps is shrinking fast as traders pare back their trading of the derivatives after they were blamed for bringing down American International Group and rocking the financial system. The face value of CDS outstanding plunged 29 per cent in the last half of 2008 to $38.6-trillion (U.S.), the International Swaps and Derivatives Association said. The derivatives, designed as risk-management tools, got a bad name because they enable traders to speculate on the health of companies by putting up relatively small amounts of cash. Critics charged that a determined trader could move the market enough to raise fears about a company's health, a tactic that was blamed for much of the pressure on financial firms through the worst of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. As a result, the industry has been working to police itself rather than face tough new regulation. Other areas of derivative trading, including contracts based on interest rates and stock prices, also shrank as the financial world worked to take less risk. The drop in CDS and other derivative activity reflects “the industry's ability to quickly and effectively respond to changing market conditions,” said Robert Pickel, the head of ISDA. [Edit: I hope no lawamkers buy the notion that the financial industry can be "self-policing". This is the SECOND time it's thrown the world into catastrophe. When will we learn?] The face value of interest-rate derivatives fell by 13 per cent to $403.1-trillion, while stock-based derivatives dropped to $8.7-trillion from $11.9-trillion. business.theglobeandmail.com Jim