>How do we get $60 trillion in derivatives in a world
>economy with total GNP of $22 trillion? Let's not get
>overblown, here.
According to the May 1998 ish of the BIS's International Banking & Financial Market Developments, there were $19.2 trillion in interest rate swaps outstanding worldwide, and $1.6 trillion in currency swaps, both as of December 1996. As of December 1997, there were also $7.8 trillion in exchange-traded futures and $4.4 trillion in exchange-traded options. (The August issue is out, but the print copy hasn't arrived, and I'm too lazy to get it from their website.) That's, what, $33 trillion? Of course, the amounts refer to "notional principal" - like the full face value of the principal in an interest-rate swap, when the cash at risk is really the difference between the two interest streams.
Doug