> Frank Partnoy's book suggests that most derivatives exist in order to > get around financial regulations.
That's true in my opinion, although originally that wasn't so much the case. The question nowadays regularly arises as to what compliance to the law would mean. It's part of a larger greedy phenomenon, that really wrecked a lot of things here in Holland as well. But, I think also the role of derivatives is subject to changes over time. A straightforward introduction to derivatives is provided by John Khambhu, "Introduction to Derivatives" (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Sept. 2002). The Futures Industry Association site is at http://www.futuresindustry.org/. I haven't seen The Human Stain yet. Jurriaan
