> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Henwood [SMTP:dhenwood at panix.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 1998 5:35 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: $60 trillion in derivatives?
>
> Greg Nowell wrote:
>
> >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
>