The Derivatives Market’s Helpful Enemies

The launch of two European antitrust investigations into the market for credit default swaps (CDS) might appear to be no more than a political vendetta against one of the alleged culprits behind the 2010 European sovereign-debt crisis. The negative perception that most people (especially in Europe) have of CDS has certainly played a role here. After all, foreigners and politically weak companies are often the favorite targets of law enforcement.