re: Just finished reading 'The Big Short' - questions

quote:

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To put the CDS situation into even further perspective, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States in 2007 -- the total value of all the goods and services generated in the country that year -- was $13.84 trillion [source: CIA]. In the third quarter of that same year, the top 25 banks in the United States held $14 trillion in credit default swaps [source: New York Times]. ­ So even if the United States could liquidate its entire GDP for the year at once, it still wouldn't cover U.S. CDS losses should a series of credit events -- those triggers for CDS payouts -- occur.

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