, Columnist
Danger Signs From an Esoteric Corner of Finance
A scarcity of greenbacks in the swaps market is worsening. This has been a predictor of past trouble, including the 2008 crisis.
This could be the harbinger of something big and bad.
Photographer: spukkato/iStockphoto/Getty Images
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King dollar is rising. Other currencies are falling like ninepins. But to gauge the impact of this surge on Asia, you have to move beyond spot exchange rates and into an esoteric corner where tens of trillions of dollars of off-balance-sheet debt lives in the accounting footnotes of banks, investors and even central banks.
That corner is currency swaps.