[DEBATE] : Radio - Frank Partnoy on credit swaps, derivatives, deregulation,

[Riaz K Tayob]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102325715

Frank Partnoy on credit swaps, derivatives, deregulation, Phil Gramm, 
CMFA, etc.--nrvu w/Terry Gross

I was listening to this interview on the radio earlier today. Well worth 
a listen.

Sorry, no transcript yet.

Fresh Air from WHYY, March 25, 2009 · Years before the current economic 
crisis, law professor and former Wall Street trader Frank Partnoy was 
warning about the dangers of risky financial practices.

In his 1997 book FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street, Partnoy 
detailed how derivatives — financial instruments whose value is 
determined by another security — were being used and abused by big 
financial firms. Partnoy used his experiences as a derivatives trader at 
Morgan Stanley to give the book an insider's perspective. In the preface 
to FIASCO, Partnoy wrote about the growing influence of derivatives:

"Derivatives have become the largest market in the world. The size of 
the derivatives market, estimated at $55 trillion in 1996, is double the 
value of all U.S. stocks and more than 10 times the entire U.S. national 
debt. Meanwhile, derivatives losses continue to multiply."

Partnoy is a professor at the University of San Diego law school. In 
addition to FIASCO, he's the author of Infectious Greed: How Deceit and 
Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets.

Partnoy joins Fresh Air to explain derivatives, credit default swaps and 
how they led to the current financial crisis.