August 10, 2007

Markets also abhors experts not behaving like experts

Sir, Frank Partnoy in “Markets abhor the vacuum left by derivatives” August 10 describes very well why the volatility has increased as a result of the investors finding out that their investments are in many cases not accurately or timely valued and that they might be up for some nasty surprises. Add to this the fact of having to see how good grades were awarded to mortgage collateralized debt obligations by the credit rating agencies without them even leaving their desk and do a little check-up on how those mortgages were issued and you might see the perfect volatility storm coming into sight.