A Simple Explanation of How The Use of Derivatives Created The Great Recession [View All]

[Joanne98]

by cactus

A Simple Explanation of How The Use of Derivatives Created The Great Recession

In comments to a post by fellow Angry Bear Robert Waldman, reader Cantab writes:



Nobody here has come up with a believable story on how derivatives hurt the economy or were the cause of the recession. All we really get is a claim that they happened together and the further assertion that derivates caused the recession rather than the more likely story that derivatives were the victim of the recession.

I'm pretty sure Cantab is wrong but I don't have the time to find the various posts that described the issue. But I can summarize:

1. Derivatives are about magnifying bets. A $2 bet on a derivative can be the same thing as a $100 bet on the asset that underlies the security. Thus, if the asset doubles in value, instead of taking home an extra $2 on your bet, you take home an extra $100. But if the price of the asset falls in half, instead of losing $2 on your bet, you lose $100.
2. On Wall Street, everyone leveraged up. After all, the worst that can happen when you gamble with monster leverage is that you go bankrupt. But if you win your bets, you make humongous profits.
3. Inevitably, when everyone is leveraged up, at least some of those who are leveraged must sooner or later make some bad bets. But the losses associated with these leveraged up bad bets was much bigger than in the past. Instead of losing $2 on their $2 bets as would have happened in the past, they lost $100. In the past, the losers' assets would simply have been liquidated, and those assets would have been enough to cover a substantial part of the losses. With derivatives, liquidation covers an insignificant piece of what is owed.
4. Result: massive, and I mean massive, losses to the firm's creditors. Perhaps big enough to drive their creditors out of business too. And those creditors have creditors too...

Continued>>>
http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/03/simple-explanation-of-how-use-of.html