credit default swap

credit default swap

What the Sam Hill is a Credit Default Swap?

If you’re paying attention at all to our current economic crisis, then you’ve probably heard the term “credit default swap (CDS)” enough to at least make you wonder what it is. Most recently, credit default swaps played a vital role in the federal government’s decision to bail out AIG, since they determined that a huge chain of failures across the international financial system might occur if AIG were to fail and default on the swaps it sold. Must be a big deal, right? They are.