[Travis McGee]

I think it was Cramer last night. He said -— what is it called when you issue insurance that you cannot make good on? This is called fraud. This is what credit default swaps are.

Madoff is just the tip of the iceberg. His ponzi scheme just had fewer fig leaves covering the nasty parts than most hedge funds "invested" in derivatives and "insured" by scam winkers like AIG.

[dennisw]

“such a parcel of rogues in a nation” — Robert Burns