The amount outstanding of interest rate swaps decreased 8.0% to $328.1 trillion. Outstanding volumes of US dollar- and yen-denominated interest rate swaps remained virtually unchanged relative to the previous quarter. In contrast, interest rate swap markets denominated in euros (–10.6%), sterling (–24.2%), Australian dollars (–27.8%), Canadian dollars (–16.7%), Swedish kronor (–21.2%) and Swiss francs (–6.9%) all saw declines in the amounts outstanding.
Which brings us to our point: thank you Mr. Einhorn for finally starting to focus people’s attention on one of the many facets of the Fed’s uncontrollable liquidity Frankenstein. CDS, while destructive, is merely the appetizer. What will truly annihilate financial markets are all those instruments that are in place only to perpetuate the myth that a 5% interest rate in 30 year Treasurys is somehow exorbitant (based on a quick back of the envelope calc, should prevailing interest rates move higher by 1%, the net IR exposure will rise by $3 trillion… in the wrong direction… at an exponential pace). Yet what better way to keep rates where they are than than to tell China: “Hey guys, you bust one auction, and this spring loaded balloon full of $420 trillion pieces of worthless Washington feces will blow up right in your face (and take us all down with you).” In essence this is an amusing revision of that old fable: the Fed owes the world a few billion here and there: well, Ben, you are out of luck, “You’re Fired”; the Fed owes the world $1.4 quadrillion in naked and worthless pieces of paper (whose nudity will become apparent the second someone calls Bernanke’s bluff) and the Fed owns the world.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/here-there-be-big-nymbers-sic
