Sherry and minced pie charts!

Just when you thought it was safe to break out the sherry and mince pies.

Open Democracy has a very scary article by Ann Pettifor.

Globalisation: Sleepwalking to Disaster!

One of the least understood, but potentially most lethal financial products they have engineered - away from the regulatory scrutiny of central bankers and finance ministries - is called a credit default swap (CDS). In reality, they are not "swaps", but a form of insurance.....

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, in its most recent biannual survey (covering the second half of 2007) assessed the total notional amounts of CDSs outstanding at $45.5 trillion. This staggering figure is about twice the value of the United States stock market, and three times the value of the gross domestic product of the US ($13 trillion).

If you find these figures difficult to believe, let alone understand, I would suggest some holiday reading:- Cityphylia in the LRB by John Lanchester. (Thanks to John Naughton's blog for the link and suggestion)

Damn! I've just had my first mince pie and I thought it was Xmas.
Wrong again!
Very scary numbers.
Now where is that sherry?