Charles Davi

What you need to know about the debt debate that will dominate the 2012 election, thanks to the supercommittee's failure to come up with a deficit deal.Reuters.The collapse of the supercommittee in November guarantees that arguments over U.S. debt won't go away in 2012. Instead, the presidential race should only intensify partisan bickering over our debt, who's responsible for it, and what we can and should do about it.Consider this your end-of-year glossary and…… More »

Custom derivatives aren't complex wizardry, just unfamiliar to most people.… More »

Why do only busts cause unemployment?… More »

Understanding naked credit default swaps.… More »

Our resident derivatives expert answers the call to explain the market.… More »

Here's what you need to know...… More »

Why free market zealots are just wrong.… More »

John Authers' recent interview with University of Chicago professor Richard Thaler is a fine example of what I hope are broader trends in economic thought. To some, it might seem like just another interview. But Authers undoubtedly recognizes its significance. Thaler is a professor at the University of Chicago, which is the birth place of the Efficient Market Hypothesis, and Authers is a well-respected columnist for the Financial Times, which is arguably the voice…… More »

Felix Salmon and I are usually on the same side of the jury box when it comes to the trial of credit default swaps. However, it appears we have reached an impasse concerning creditor control rights in the context of restructurings and bankruptcies. While that sounds like an awfully narrow issue to quibble about, the policy implications of this seemingly obscure issue are far reaching and call into question both the orderly functioning of the debt markets and the…… More »

Megan McArdle asks, "Do We Hate Credit Default Swaps for The Wrong Reasons?" As Megan notes, blaming credit default swaps for all kinds of things is quite fashionable these days, since simply uttering the term makes commentators feel sophisticated. While this is itself a topic worthy of discussion, the more interesting point in Megan's article concerns how credit defaults swaps affect the incentives of bondholders in the context of restructurings.… More »

The conventional wisdom is that market regulation goes through booms and busts as the public oscillates through its love-hate relationship with the capitalist ethos. When all is well, high-earning executives are the embodiment of capitalism's well-oiled wealth distribution machine at work. When all is not well, they are the embodiment of the structural deficiencies inherent in a capitalist society that favor those on top. Moving in sympathy with public sentiment,…… More »

What began as bitterness has burst into a full blown battle between the haves and the havenots. Whatever the level of tension was at the outset of this crisis, public sentiment has turned an entirely new shade of red. But it's not all bad. I'm sure this period in history will prove to be a petri dish for social scientists and political theorists for decades to come. So maybe we'll learn something from it. At a minimum, we can expect SSRN's servers to be put to…… More »

It seems that we have taken as an axiom the idea that if the price of a home drops below the face value of the mortgage, the borrower will default on the mortgage. That sounds like a good rule, since it's got prices dropping and people defaulting at the same time, so there's a certain intuitive appeal to it. But in reality, it makes no sense. Either the borrower can afford the mortgage based on her income alone or not. However, it does make sense if you also…… More »

An essay on mortgage backed securities. See also The Demand For Risk And A Macroeconomic Theory of Credit Default Swaps.Mortgage backed securities allow investors to gain exposure to the housing market by taking on credit risk linked to a pool of mortgages. Although the underlying mortgages are originated by banks, the existence of investor demand for MBSs allows the originators to effectively pass the mortgages off to the investors and pocket a fee. Thus, the…… More »