Here’s a more detailed version of the Fed’s AIG bailout to follow up our previous post. Quick review: On Monday it was thought that AIG, the world’s largest insurer, needed about $40 billion to meet a wave of claims on credit default swaps and other obligations. The logic went that this would be a bridge
Credit Default Swaps
Never seems to go too long before republican presidential hopeful John McCain provides another completely valid reason for us to continue with our series on his economic policy meandering. Here’s what McCain said today … The fundamentals of our economy are strong. McCain said this today … one day after Alan Greenspan said this is
Fannie and Freddie are the backbone of the U.S. housing market, and they were just taken over by the government. Here's what you need to know.
Global financial markets are essentially mechanisms for buying, selling and transferring risks. When we break these risks all down to their roots, I would argue that there really exist only four actual fundamental risks that are being bought, sold and otherwise transferred. They are: (1) Enterprise credit risk: the risk that an organization won’t be
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have had a few good trading days this week, but they’re still ripe for a near-term Treasury bailout if capital problems persist. As NY Times writer Gretchen Morgenson pointed out Sunday, this bailout is complicated by credit default insurance (or swaps). She’s covered this otherwise under-reported area of the credit