[CutePuppy]

This is a subscription publication, but this article is very much worth reading for those who want to understand how the companies and overall markets are being crippled through the use of generally legitimate and otherwise useful quasi-financial "insurance" instruments. Most libraries and news stands should have this issue by Monday, it's in the "Streetwise" section.

The truth is trickling out about the use of CDSs as a "shorting" instrument, instead of insurance it was supposed to be, especially in conjunction with outright, often "naked", shorting of companies' stock, and how it helped lead to deliberate and indiscriminate destruction of capital and spreading of fear, which are feeding on each other.

[ari-freedom]

first let’s put Obama, Dodd and barney Frank on a very very short leash.

[CutePuppy]

Another article from Barron's November 15, 2008 issue - FR post Defusing the Credit-Default Swap Bomb

[Vet_6780]

Naked CDS is the $60 trillion black swan that flies under the radar.

Even though it has been reported over and over for years as the base cause of the credit crunch, nobody understands it including Obama. Obfuscation is the best stealth.

Meanwhile. the federal reserve system continues its death spiral.

[expatpat]

Yes, the size of the CDS problem dwarfs the size of the mortgage problem itself because the CDSs were used for gambling and speculation far beyond investment in the mortgage securities themselves — AIG took the wrong end of the swaps.......