I just read some comments

Right, my thesis is that most of us have finally jumped off the plank mentaly. Right? things are horrible, and yet we need to be long. Denying every bit of our emotional impulse in the market... But that is what it is to be a Trader.

So, I was reading a comment about exposure to Derivatives... Ya... One of those great Boogyman words of the Ignorant.... Derivative.... Toxic Asset!!! Ideate!!! ETC. So when Lehman went down there was some odd 100 Billion in derivatives, and mostly swaps that Nulled out. I'm having a hard time with the numbers but the Ratio of Null swaps was 50/1. so for 100 Billion in exposure to "Toxic Derivatives".. The real exposure was Roughly 2 billion in maximum potential losses across all the banks.

the Other issue is that it's through these derivatives that the banks Hedge and risk manage. I've mentioned before that it's because of this "Spreading of the risk, or Hedging" that creates the "too big to fail issue" One collapse isn't devistating across teh sector, but it is certainly felt amung the counter parties.

The real Crisis is the lack of confidence a Failure creates. This Financial shell game is just a confidence game!! No confidence, no Game.