Derivatives
Senate aides inched closer Friday to combining separate bills that would establish oversight of the vast market for derivatives, an effort central to the ongoing push to revamp the nation’s financial regulations.
Derivatives are invented securities such as futures contracts, collateralized debt obligations, and credit-default swaps that are related to real assets or events but have no inherent value of their own.
This is a classic case of too little too late from the U.S. government. For a problem that was a clear and present danger to the United States years ago, the Bush administration took action Friday (November 14, 2008) to strengthen government oversight of derivatives trading and close the loopholes that have allowed these complex products to avoid scrutiny. The agencies signed a memorandum of understanding to close the loopholes in their oversight of the complex products that are at the heart of the recent financial market meltdown.