1.5 quadrillion dollar? that is 1,500 trillion dollars. That is all the total wealth in the US and the world.
Google the 2005 Congressional hearings on derivatives. Greenspan and SEC admitted that the market was so complex and intricate that they did not totally understood it. Experts also testified that the liabilities built up over the 20 years is massive that they do not know the true amounts. They estimated 55 trillion to 1.5 quadrillion, but they really do not know, but they do know that the US and the world combined could not print enough currency (we would run out of currency paper and ink) to cover the losses if the system collapsed.
...and that leads to a question I’ve been asking here on FR for more than a month. “What if the original mortgages were sold more than once?” I’m not talking about re-selling up the food chain. Think, Max Bialystok!