Betting on Collapse: The Shadow Market of Sovereign Credit Default Swaps

You can buy insurance for your car or your house, but in the ruthless, multi-trillion-dollar shadow economy of global finance, you can also buy insurance against the catastrophic collapse of an entire sovereign nation. This high-stakes derivative is known as a Sovereign Credit Default Swap (CDS). If a country like Greece, Argentina, or Russia defaults on its national debt, a Sovereign CDS pays o...