Cold Spring Capital Inc  (CDS) Trade Now »     Rate CDS  -  Discuss CDS  -  Add to Watch List        

From a speech back in 2004 comes this telling quote: 
>

"One other thing I've done, is I've called on private sector mortgage banks and banks to be more aggressive about lending money to first-time home buyers. And the response has been really good. There's a lot of people in this -- our communities around the country that deeply care about the issue of homeownership, and they've been responsive."

- George W. Bush, U.S. President, March 26, 2004.

>

Filed under: Bank of America (BAC), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Financial Crisis

The banking system has been crumbling for over a year, but last month's collapse of American International Group (NYSE: AIG) -- which prompted an $85 billion government takeover -- suggests that insurance is not immune from the problems. As a reminder, AIG got snared in the $62 trillion Credit Default Swap (CDS) market whose growth was spurred by McCain advisor, Phil "Americans are Whiners" Gramm.

Filed under: Bank of America (BAC), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Financial Crisis

The banking system has been crumbling for over a year, but last month's collapse of American International Group (NYSE: AIG) -- which prompted an $85 billion government takeover -- suggests that insurance is not immune from the problems. As a reminder, AIG got snared in the $62 trillion Credit Default Swap (CDS) market whose growth was spurred by McCain advisor, Phil "Americans are Whiners" Gramm.

Other than insisting on using notional value to really hike up the Fear Factor (and to irritate me), the current Fortune has a required reading article on credit default swaps (CDS). Best characterized as an insurance market run by under-capitalized non-insurers for people who only want to pretend their debt is insured, the CDS business's vestiges are dangling out there waiting to explode, like abandoned ordinance.

Here's a snippet: