[dennisw]

TRANSLATION:
China is trading in its tremendous hoard of US Dollars for hard assets because it thinks this mountain of toxic derivatives will crumble and implode and kill the US Dollar and other currencies

So China is shedding US dollars to buy gold, silver and oil producing assets. Other commodities too

[upchuck]

bookmark

[Moonman62]

Central banks must clear the derivatives overhang and are consirding offering emergency funds (bailouts)

Regulators are pushing for much of the $592 trillion market in over-the-counter derivatives trades to be moved to clearinghouses which act as the buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer, reducing the risk to the financial system from defaults.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I don't know why the author is trying to induce panic.

[wolfcreek]

Sounds like someone has a *severe* gambling problem.

After all, that's essentially what derivatives trading amounts to.

[cookcounty]

"one quadrillion one hundred and forty four trillion dollars "

The first time I've seen the term "quadrillion" applied to dollars in anything other than a comedy sketch. Scary.

[happygrl]

We are so screwed.

[BP2]

This data is from August 2008:

All figures in $000 - so add three more zeros to the numbers in this chart:

Sources: FDIC/IRA Bank Monitor; Q1 2008 data shown in “bank only” rollup.   

Damn - $90 Trillion dollars derivative exposure for JPMorgan! No wonder the Fed "rescue"
of Bear Stearns  was via JPM - it was their own derivative exposure that was at risk.

And a lot of this is tied to Mortgage-Backed Securities - with the worst of THAT still ahead: