Untangling credit default swaps


When the analysts and experts talk about the current financial crisis, they often refer to credit default swaps. So, what exactly is a credit default swap? Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch goes to the whiteboard for this explanation.

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25 Comments

  1. psynema
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 4:21 am | Permalink

    Public BANKING!

  2. SIGN666
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 4:48 am | Permalink

    This is all deeply rooted in the ideology of deregulated free market capitalism where we let financial institutions, banks & corporations dictate and everybody is at the mercy of big business & a tyrannical government willing to back them up at tax payers expense. The government knew what was going on but allowed it for the sake of profit. And AIG is too big to fail because of contracts & we’re all just supposed to sit back & take the abuse. Why don’t we just overthrow the government? (-A-)

  3. ThePolka
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 5:40 am | Permalink

    Thank you. You made the concept very easy to understand.

  4. aishkarbeta
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 5:56 am | Permalink

    Awesome video, i did a search on wiki and other investor sites but was still confused. You explained it well. Thank You

  5. mediblue9
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 5:57 am | Permalink

    W. Buffett owns 20% of Moody’s

  6. mediblue9
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 6:08 am | Permalink

    very easy to understand

  7. farmboycarl
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 6:28 am | Permalink

    Why do “teachers” have to make simple things so complicated? A credit default swap is a bet against the failure of whatever it’s written against. $50 Trillion dollars worth of these things were written against American Home Mortgages. -Now, do you think the men on Wall Street who invented these things, and spent billions of dollars buying them have an interest in seeing you default on your mortgage? -THINK about it, because this guy will do nothing but lead you in circles.

  8. GermanStraight1
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 7:00 am | Permalink

    well …
    the real problem of that system has not been tackled in my opinion !
    The Rating company also has a intrest in these deals … who is watching the rating companys ?
    No major changes have been implemented !
    WHY NOT ???
    Brgds
    GSO

  9. klipsch21
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 7:34 am | Permalink

    collateral exists to reimburse the creditor / customer in the event institution is unable to honor its commitments, i.e. it defaults. In other words it guarantees you will be paid back in any situation. As for sam expecting gm to fail, i suppose in that case he can effectively rip off jim, but in the end theyll both loose money unless maybe sam was in a bet and being paid by someone else.

  10. Ataraxian13
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 8:20 am | Permalink

    I want to pull off the biggest CDS scam in history.

    WHO WANTS TO JOIN ME AND BECOME RICH?!?

    p.s. great teaching, great vid,

    5/5

  11. chetansingh2006
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 9:11 am | Permalink

    America has turned away from Thomas Jafferson ideals to a Hamiltonian head that the price u have all paid kissing the english mercantile asses

  12. chetansingh2006
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 9:30 am | Permalink

    America has turned away from Thomas Jafferson ideals to a Hamiltonian head that the price u have all paid kissing the english mercantile asses

  13. chetansingh2006
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 9:51 am | Permalink

    America has turned away from Thomas Jafferson ideals to a Hamiltonian head that the price u have all paid kissing the english mercantile asses

  14. chetansingh2006
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 10:31 am | Permalink

    America has turned away from Thomas Jafferson ideals to a Hamiltonian head that the price u have all paid kissing the english mercantile asses

  15. avster95
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 10:35 am | Permalink

    impressive!

  16. majesticteam12
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 11:03 am | Permalink

    simple solution – no insurable interest on the respective financial instrument means you cannot buy a credit default swap on that instrument

  17. mrsnail445
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 11:19 am | Permalink

    yep – you don’t have to own the underlying bonds to trade the CDS

  18. teffy91
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 11:33 am | Permalink

    is it also possible that jim could have bought a cds without owning any bonds from gm?

  19. teffy91
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    would someone please explain the purpose of the collateral. also, what is the gain of jim buying bonds in gm motors with the expectation it will fail?

  20. hbjon
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 12:31 pm | Permalink

    Lame. this doesn’t really explain the fraud. We want to know who is the real victim. We want to know who is being wronged by this practice. Is there anyone with common sense any more?

  21. jerseyjack
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 12:40 pm | Permalink

    cds IS insuring the entire risk 500k is just the collateral. The entire amount is supposed to be paid back in order to make the insured “whole”. Companies like AIG were taking on more than they could handle. When large corps like GM go south they may or may not be able to cover everyone’s losses. When they are forced to go public no one knows if they’ll be made whole or not…thus causing a panic. I’m not an expert…but that seems to be the case to me.

  22. Eyunbin
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 12:53 pm | Permalink

    what I think is… Jim needs to pay the difference to Sam. the collateral is only an protection for Sam when Jim is down rated or even default. I’m not quite sure… do varify me :)

  23. oesterle6
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 1:44 pm | Permalink

    Thank you, Thank you! I finally get what happened. Even CNBC didn’t explain it so clearly in their layperson specials.

  24. FA9082
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 2:09 pm | Permalink

    Very comprehensive video, thank you for the service.

  25. fukinh0t
    Posted April 30, 2010 at 2:40 pm | Permalink

    So then the credit default swap is only insuring up to the collateral and not the full amount os the loss?

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