CDSs

At the Financial Services Inquiry Commission hearing, former Wall Street derivatives executive Steven Kohlhagen claimed derivatives generally played "no role" in causing the financial crisis. This puzzling argument doesn't pass the straight-face test.

MBIA has sued Merrill Lynch because the CDOs on which Merrill bought insurance from MBIA were AAA-rated junk. MBIA says Merrill knew the CDOs didn't deserve the top rating at the time it insured them. If this case succeeds, big banks may find dud ratings very expensive.

Of all the outrages to the American taxpayer in the last year, there is not one that can top the bailout of American International Group (AIG). After former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson decided to let Lehman Brothers collapse 13 months ago in history's biggest bankruptcy ($639 billion), AIG --...

You may remember American International Group (AIG). The U.S. government gave it $182 billion of taxpayer money last fall in exchange for a 78 percent stake. Of that money, $165 million went for bonuses to a handful of people in its Financial Products Group (FPG), which sold Credit Default Swaps...

One of the greatest benefits to America of John McCain's loss last November was blocking a return to power of Phil Gramm, who helped McCain by pointing out that Americans are "whiners." More importantly, he's the economist whose deregulation of the market for derivatives, such as credit default...