[politicket]

This economic crisis has nothing to do with the Obama election. Those that say it does are just spreading political pablum that will end up hurting those that feed on it.

This economic crisis is a direct result of a very powerful financial instrument that wasn't fully regression tested - called Credit Default Swaps.

The exposure to CDS contracts has brought down the economies of the world, and we're just getting started.

U.S. Presidents - past, present, or future are powerless to stop it. It has to play itself out.

Congress is just standing in the path of a runaway train. They need to let insolvent corporations go bankrupt. They're just prolonging the financial agony for all Americans.

[Texas_shutterbug]

Yes, the credit default swaps has magnified the fannie/freddie debacle a hundred fold.

I'm hoping that most freepers just want to hate Obama, and that they're not really stupid enough to believe the election is what caused this. If that's the case, freepers are way more ignorant that I would like to think.

[supercat]

This economic crisis is a direct result of a very powerful financial instrument that wasn't fully regression tested - called Credit Default Swaps.

Which is more profitable: selling lottery tickets at $100 each that will pay off $500,000, all for different pick-four numbers (1:10,000 chance of winning) or selling lottery tickets at $100 each that will pay off $1,200,000, all for the same pick-four number? The latter is much more profitable if one has suitable escape plans in place.

The problem wasn't that CDS issuers didn't know what would happen if the markets tanked. They knew precisely the first part of what would happen: they would welsh on their bets, and wouldn't care what happened to the bettors.