Spotted this reference which might be worth someone taking a look (I haven't had the time to look at this) from the inimitable boing boing blog. If anyone does look at it and says its worth the time perhaps they could report back...
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/what-the-hell-is-a-c.html "What the hell is a Credit Default Swap? Posted by Cory Doctorow, December 11, 2008 2:40 AM | permalink This American Life's hour-long show on "credit-default swaps" is the best explanation I've heard so far for what the hell these things are and how they ended up causing so much havoc. I keep asking economists, bankers, and finance people what this is all about and while I understood that somehow an exotic, unregulated, non-standardised financial instrument had created trillions in semi-illusory wealth, I just couldn't really understand exactly what that meant. This hour-long audio show does a great job of explaining the technicalities of CDSes, and then delves into their history, regulatory context, and problems, ranging from Congress to bankers to people on the street. Great stuff -- an hour well spent." _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
