@PutneyDebates PutneyDebates @RichardJMurphy The Courageous State would prosecute rigorously the fraudulent who created and sold CDS based on sub-prime mortgages. To which the retired accountant from Wandsworth replied “Indeed!”. What they both mean of course is that those who created CDOs based on sub-prime mortgages should be prosecuted. You know, like the Directors of Fannie

The European Parliament yesterday (15 November) cast an overwhelming vote against financial markets as it rubber-stamped a bill to curb short-selling and trading in credit default swaps (CDS),  blamed for fuelling speculation on sovereign debt and exacerbating Greece's debt woes.  More »

Cost to insure the debt of Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands hit all-time highs

End to tax relief on low-value goods such as CDs and DVDs shipped from the Channel Islands

No, it’s not dastardly speculators, not the CDS market, hedge funds or anything of the sort. In total, BNP Paribas, which has been at the centre of market fears connected to its exposure to eurozone sovereign debt, said it had reduced its government debt exposure by 25pc in the third quarter from €106bn (£91bn) to

CDS or credit default swaps, are used to protect, or hedge, the owners of bonds against the event of a default by the issuer! Credit default swaps or CDS have been used here in the past to look at how the global markets viewed the potential for an issuer of debt, such as Greece, to default on its obligation to pay. Like any insurance, the greater the perceived risk, the more expensive the CDS cont...

Brussels gave green light yesterday (18 October) to ban "naked" credit default swaps (CDS) on sovereign debt in an attempt to curb what some policymakers see as hedge fund bets on the euro zone crisis. More »

A permanent ban on "naked" CDS is set to be agreed by EU lawmakers, accompanied by a ban on naked short selling of bonds and shares

Widening CDS spreads for Germany and France are symptomatic of their contingent liabilities in banks and weaker sovereign debtors

Sovereign debt issuers that is! And it is the marketplace that is usually the best arbiter of what is good and what is bad! In the instance of sovereign debt it's the major global players and institutions, in this case through the use of credit default swaps (CDS), that set the market odds a country is going to default on its obligations in some actual or technical way. CDS is a type of insur...