Sunday, May 1, 2011

Derivatives Misunderstood

Politicians love to point fingers at derivatives as bad, and a major cause of our past financial distress.

But derivatives perform an important function as a financial instrument.

Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, overlooked meetings, monitoring trading of derivatives, when he headed the New York Federal Reserve. So, the mysterious workings of derivatives should not have been so foreboding, dangerous, and deadly, causing the 2008 financial meltdown. And they didn’t warrant the notoriety they received.

Derivatives trading now have tougher regulations. I can see having more transparency, but derivatives make financing cheaper in the long run.

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