69 trillion dollars in credit defaut swaps gone bad They say that will be the next big news story to come along. I been hearing that for a couple of months now on arcane business websites, but nothing in the main stream news yet. See Bucket Shops
Credit Default Swaps are like side bets on the market. A form of gambling. They were declared illegal a hundred years ago after they caused the panic of 1903 in the usa. But for some reason the US CONGRESS passed a law to make them legal again in 2000.
It is too deep for me“The scariest uncertainties of all involve the unknown liabilities lurking out there in the shadow banking system,” writes Steve Coll. No one knows the extent of credit default swaps, the unregulated insurance contracts sold privately to financial institutions to protect them against losses in stocks or bonds. “Published estimates of the nominal value of all credit-default-swap contracts in the world today are in the range of $55 trillion to $60 trillion,” he writes. “So here is a global private market whose products, combined, have a nominal value roughly equal to the total size of the world economy’s output in a year, and apparently no one in any government knows the full market’s shape, distribution, or true vulnerabilities. Gulp.”
When will we reach bottom
. I just went grocery shopping, I got 2 bananas, a tomato, an avocado and a dozen eggs. I still got ten bucks in my pocket and a a hundred in the bank. I feel like I am ready to ride out the storm.
I got my retirement check every month and a part time job. I am old I got it made in the shade, or at least as long as the Social Security system stays solvent. Old people got the power here, one of the most powerful lobbies is the AARP, the american association of retired people, too bad there is nobody looking out for the young americans.
