[ThePythonicCow]

This is one of the better explanations of Mortgage Backed Securities and Credit Default Swaps that I've found.

[Darkwolf377]

The real question is: Who is going to compensate the common investors across the world who have lost their wealth in the resultant market meltdown?

Uh--excuse me?

Who says these investors should expect to be compensated?

[Darkwolf377]

This is an excellent read, thanks for posting it.

I know next to zilch about this kind of thing, but this is a lot of food for thought.

[politicket]

ping...

[politicket]

Wow!! I just checked the Dow futures before heading off to bed. They had been down about 165. Now they're down about 215.

An interesting day awaits.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Just to collect these together, tonight’s 60 minutes segment on CDS’ was actually pretty good.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/05/60minutes/main4502454.shtml

[familyop]

That’s a great piece. The only thing that it missed was the recycling of the 1970s ballooning payment plans with new propaganda and so forth for the new schemes against overly optimistic buyers.

[familyop]

The downturn will also hinder importers who are trying to switch from China to cheaper third-world sources of labor.

[Bellflower]

ping for later

[ikka]

Even IF these supposed geniuses didn't realize what a house of cards things were, how is it that, since they are essentially betting on the entire US housing market, they were not looking at the demographics of the US population?

They would have realized that the Baby Boomers are not buying but in fact, selling their homes and starting to downsize as they retire. And the next segment of the population is smaller, meaning that they will need less homes in total.