[defenderSD]

This is no big deal because the numbers involved are way to small to affect the world's financial markets to any extent. The article says Refco has $642 million in debts. That is chicken feed in today's world. When Long Term Capital went bankrupt in 1997, that hedge fund had around $30 billion in assets, if I recall correctly. That was a big enough problem to cause some disruption in the stock markets. This Refco problem is totally insignificant to the stock market, although it may have some short-term effect on commodity prices.

[Travis McGee]

Refco is the tip of the derivatives iceberg.
You can choke to death on a fishbone, if it sticks in the right place.

[SAJ]

$30 billion in assets, well over $2 trillion in derivative instruments...and, at the end (before the recapitalisation consortium), about $550 million in capital.

Hi, ho, Archimedes!

;^)