Burying the Fantasy of Markets That Police Themselves

Better late than never.

Unless, of course, it's too late.

According to this post on the New York Times DealBook blog, the credit default swaps market is now "a rising priority for regulators who oversee banks and insurers." That's nice. But given that credit default swaps appear to be nothing more than an elaborate fantasy of valuations, and given the threat this nonsense poses to the economy, it's about bloody time they made it a priority.

But I'm being too negative. As DealBook points out, "a silver lining to the credit cloud we’ve been under for the last year does seem to be taking shape. Regulators are once again regulating. And, says (Times journalist) Ms. Morgenson, we can bury for good the fantasy that financial market participants are able and willing to police themselves."