But since they are one of several inventions that may sink this city, and maybe the country, into a new era of penury and thrift, if not downright depression, let's have a go: a credit-default swap is a financial contract between one party and another which protects against a default on a debt.
Why is it moral, logical and perfectly acceptable for corporations to default on a debt but sinful, almost criminal, for a struggling homeowner to do the same thing?
They point out that their ratings measure credit risk ie, the odds of default on a debt instrument that is held to maturity.
In early September, the Harvard economist and former Venezuelan planning minister Ricardo Hausmann wrote an essay, published online at Project Syndicate, suggesting that there were sound economic reasons the country might choose to default on a debt payment of more than five billion dollars that was due to investors the following month.
C1 Yukos Receives Debt Notice Yukos, the Russian oil giant, received its first notice from Western creditors that it is in danger of default on a debt of $1 billion, intensifying the battle between the Russian authorities and Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the company's founder, who has been jailed on charges of fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion.
Q: Companies are quick to report to the credit reference agencies when you default on a debt.
If one person dies, the surviving partner owns the full amount; if one person defaults on a debt, the joint account holder is responsible for all of it.
FTI Consulting's report alleges QN became insolvent by 27 November, when it defaulted on a debt to the rail company Aurizon, after which it incurred $225m in debt.
Telephone debt You are called by "Her Majesty's Court" and told you have defaulted on a debt for an expensive telephone preference service.
NextWave, which sought bankruptcy protection in 1998, won a victory in June when a federal appeals court returned the frequencies the company lost after defaulting on a debt to the government.
