[untrained skeptic]

Then such derivitives trading should be outlawed.

Doing so now, with their use so extensive, would cause a worldwide economic disaster, and that is not an exaggeration.

Now would be a good time to try and find a way to restrain and limit their use in the future, but you can't just step in and outlaw their use all of a sudden.

Derivatives trading in itself isn't really a bad thing. Over exposure to derivatives trading is bad.

They reduce risk for one party by shifting that risk to another party. The problem is that these large investment houses have allowed too much risk to be shifted to them. If the market changes suddenly, companies that had seem solid suddenly see their assets go up in smoke.

[cinives]

Ask anyone who has gone thru a bankruptcy whether it's a disaster. The answer is it's painful, embarrassing, but you don't die.

Marking to market would cause a TU condition in the financial markets and bankrupt governments of any overleveraged parties, but we'd all come out better and more honest on the other side.