, Columnist
Why Would Anyone Buy Credit Default Swaps on the U.S.?
"Who would ever invest in credit default swaps on the U.S. government? If the U.S. ever defaulted it would be because the world ended, so no one would be around to pay you on your CDS," is a thing that people more or less used to say. Not so much any more?
"Why would anyone buy credit default swaps on the U.S. government? If the U.S. ever defaulted it would be because the world ended, so no one would be around to pay you on your CDS," is a thing that people more or less used to say.
Not so much any more? Now it's like, "Why would anyone buy credit default swaps on the U.S. government? If the U.S. ever defaulted it would be because of stupid debt-ceiling procedural problems, and they'd fix it quickly, and treasury bonds would only have payments delayed by a couple of days, so they wouldn't lose any value, so your CDS wouldn't pay you anything."