Global derivatives market now valued at over $1 quadrillion dollars

"The Bank of International Settlements, which seems to be the only institution that tracks the derivatives market, has recently reported that global outstanding derivatives have reached 1.14 quadrillion dollars: $548 Trillion in listed credit derivatives plus $596 trillion in notional/OTC derivatives."

That's $1,140 trillion. $1.1 quadrillion.

"That time bomb almost went off in March 2008 with the Bear Stearns debacle. The title of an article by noted analyst Ambrose Evans-Prichard—“Fed’s rescue halted a derivatives Chernobyl”—says virtually everything you need to know."

"According to the article, Bear Stearns held a jaw-dropping $13.4 trillion in derivatives, which is 'greater than the U.S. national income.' So where did it all go? Well, this time anyway, JP Morgan was encouraged to step in to add Bear’s derivatives to its own $77 trillion portfolio, giving the financial giant a grand total of $90 trillion in spooky derivatives."

- http://jutiagroup.com/2008/07/24/global-derivatives-market-now-valued-at-114-quadrillion/





The comparison to world net equity (wealth) is stunning. The entire world is a 3-to1 levered financial system.

The last paragraph about Bear Sterns' derivatives exposure ($13 trillion) is interesting in light of the recent chatter about the true nature of the AIG-Bailout-to-save-Goldman-exposure story.

Oh - JP Morgan now has $90 trillion in notional derivative exposure.