Credit Derivatives

To Brooksley Born, JPMorgan Chase's trading blowup looks a lot like the Long-Term Capital Management debacle of 14 years ago. It's "happening all o...

The United States is trying to pull out of the greatest financial tailspins in its history. Dice-rolling braggadacio by a key officer at one of the nation's largest banks is exactly the kind of thing Congress, taxpayers and voters should find scary.

Somebody throw some water on the irony meter because it's burning up: JPMorgan could have been spared the embarrassment and pain of its $2 billion tra...

JPMorgan Chase has suffered big, unexpected losses at a closely watched trading desk, providing fodder to supporters of a new financial regulation the...

If you're like me, you may have noticed the curious way our Wall Street watchdogs tend to operate. For example, a comparison: Harry Markopolos can gif...

Complicated credit derivatives turned the financial crisis into a catastrophe back in 2008. Now comes a study claiming evidence that these financial i...

The disputes over credit default swaps on Greece highlight the fact that most participants in the credit derivatives market are at the mercy of ISDA when it comes to interpretation of ISDA's language. The only solution to that is to exercise one's rights.

Ratings downgrades will trigger increased margin calls. This is all business as (un)usual. What isn't usual is diverting money from segregated customer accounts. It's too late to blame "sloppiness, bookkeeping, or accounting."

If anyone thinks that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has the right stuff to regulate the commodities markets, look no further than its failure to check manipulation in the silver market.

I'd just turned 20 when I began a three-year stint on Citigroup's corporate-derivatives team. I had no work experience to speak of. As my boss said after my interview, I was "f***ing unpolished."

The European Union is shocked -- shocked I tell you! -- that Greece used financial engineering to qualify for admission. Exactly how did they think that weaker countries managed to meet the requirements?

Buying a five year naked CDS is like buying life insurance on a stranger. It is not legal for individuals and should be treated similarly for companies.

Hey kids! Were you holding out hope that someone might do something to robustly regulate the derivatives market that wrought such wrack and ruin to th...

If Wall Street -- and especially Goldman Sachs -- had not manufactured value-destroying securities and related credit derivatives, the money supply for bad loans would have been choked off years earlier.

I tend to believe that the Glass-Steagall approach, an institutional way to address the question, overlooks the importance of a market response.

Did Goldman Sachs dissemble and equivocate in its responses to the New York Times?

The economy did not just have a heart attack; we are suffering from financial appendicitis. Instead of doing the necessary surgery, Congress is prescribing potent addictive painkillers.

The Justice Department is investigating the role of several major companies in the credit markets, in another indication that the government is intens...

Now that Goldman Sachs is a commercial bank comes a new set of public reporting requirements. One of these public reports is linked above, and below i...

WASHINGTON — Despite persistently high unemployment, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday the Obama administration's economic stimulu...

I have wonderful news to report to everyone! Apparently I have woken up today in a parallel universe, where the sun is shining and the birds are sing...

I think Bill Clinton makes a persuasive case that it was what he didn't do, rather than what did do, that contributed to the financial crisis. There a...

The current lesson for the commercial banks is that if they want to survive, they should not do any of the things -- such as increase lending -- that the Treasury is trying to get them to do.

The longer this goes on, the more absurd it is becoming. Hank Paulson may know what he is doing. He may have insight that is lost on the rest of us. ...