Global financial crisis

The Jolly Contrarian’s Glossary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ →Go uptown The global financial crisis personified. Well, objectified, at any rate. Boxonified. Index — Click the ᐅ to expand: Glossary Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

“During the financial crisis, however, roughly two-thirds of losses attributed to counterparty credit risk were due to CVA losses and only about one-third were due to actual defaults.”

— Basel Committee press release, 2011

All David Bowie’s fault. He started this off by monetising his future royalties. Before you knew it, it was tranched CDO³ everywhere you looked, Morgan Stanley was on fire, the world was BURNING man and people were wandering round dazed and shell shocked and living under bridges in Manhattan in makeshift housing made out of Iron Mountain boxes.

See also

• Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
• Iron Mountain
• Rapture; Omega, Apocalypse etc.
• 2008 ISDA Master Agreement - the other potential culprit