The Economy: "Derivatives Market a $1.2 Quadrillion Time Bomb"
by The Independent Report
In fact, derivatives were used to conceal credit risk from third parties while protecting derivative counterparties, which contributed to the financial crisis in 2008. That threat still lingers today. If interest rates were to rise unexpectedly, for example, it could result in a financial bloodbath on Wall Street.
Derivatives are used to make the really big money on Wall St. They can be many things, but are basically contracts or bets that derive their value from the performance of something else — an interest rate, a bond or stock, a loan, a currency, a commodity, virtually anything. For traders, derivatives are a perfect product. They can also be highly lucrative to financial institutions. Over the last five years, banks earned an estimated $20 billion selling derivatives just to school districts, hospitals, and scores of state and local governments across the country. Yet, as Warren Buffett famously stated, derivatives are “financial weapons of mass destruction.”
Even if Congress decided to regulate the stunningly massive derivatives market, regulators wouldn’t be able to assess the risks of derivatives because they don’t understand them. Congress doesn’t understand them either. That’s by design. The whole market is set up to be incomprehensible to anyone other than those who arranged it, making it beyond regulation.
Insured U.S. banks and savings institutions held $222 trillion worth of derivatives in the second quarter of 2012, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Yet, the total U.S. economy is approximately $15 trillion.
Most disturbingly, another financial crisis is inevitable because the causes of the previous one have never been resolved. The “Big Six” U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) now possess assets equivalent to approximately 60 percent of America’s gross national product. If that doesn’t sound healthy, it’s because it isn’t. If any of these six banks fails, the repercussions to the U.S. and global economies would be disastrous.
What is particularly troubling — and appalling — is that the Dodd-Frank law places taxpayers as the backstop behind Wall Street derivatives trading. As the Wall Street Journal reported: “Little noticed is that on Tuesday Team Obama took its first formal steps toward putting taxpayers behind Wall Street derivatives trading — not behind banks that might make mistakes in derivatives markets, but behind the trading itself. Yes, the same crew that rails against the dangers of derivatives is quietly positioning these financial instruments directly above the taxpayer safety net…”
So, once again, American taxpayers have been set up as the bailout agents for Wall St. banks and the wider financial industry. The question is, given the size of our economy relative to the derivatives market, where will all the necessary bailout money come from when that market eventually implodes? Undoubtedly, the Fed will just print it. That has always been its solution to every crisis.”
2012-10-14 22:24:41
Source: http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-economy-derivatives-market-12.html
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