The Power Of Derivatives In The Global Financial System

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: A, City University London, language: English, abstract: This work is to discuss the role and power of derivatives in the global financial markets and their ability to reduce, diversify and enhance risks associated with international capital flows. During the last two decades derivatives, as fiscal instruments, experienced enormous growth and gained increasingly of importance. This is mainly due to their ability to allow the spreading of risks in cross border capital movements, making such investments more appealing and the diversification of portfolios more likely. Yet, derivative markets are controversial because they are not well known outside a small group of specialists. Most people look at them with suspicion and focus on their role as highly effective instruments for speculation. Given the leverage they provide fortunes can be made or lost in the wink of an eye. Although derivatives do not create anything it will be shown in the course of this study that the importance of derivatives lies in the fact that they can be used to reduce, diversify and control uncertainty and risks associated with various corporate activities, thus creating substantial benefits as well as complexities. Section one is going to define the most common derivative products before addressing their general purpose followed by exemplifying two principal risks aligned with the use of derivatives, namely credit- and market risk. Subsequently this works is going to discuss the positive as well as the negative effects derivatives may have on banks and investors. Sections five, six and seven will then illuminate systematic predicaments, address risks and eventually conclude after having considered the entanglement and market share of derivatives. Warren Buffett, Forbes-listed as the richest person in the world, has called credit derivatives financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that

The market for financial derivatives is far and away the largest and most powerful market in the world, and it is growing exponentially. In 1970 the yearly valuation of financial derivatives was only a few million dollars. By 1980 the sum had swollen to nearly one hundred million dollars. By 1990 it had climbed to almost one hundred billion dollars, and in 2000 it approached one hundred trillion. Created and sustained by a small number of European and American banks, corporations, and hedge funds, the derivatives market has an enormous impact on the economies of nations—particularly poorer nations—because it controls the price of money. Derivatives bought and sold by means of computer keystrokes in London and New York affect the price of food, clothing, and housing in Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, and Buenos Aires. Arguing that social theorists concerned with globalization must familiarize themselves with the mechanisms of a world economy based on the rapid circulation of capital, Edward LiPuma and Benjamin Lee offer a concise introduction to financial derivatives. LiPuma and Lee explain how derivatives are essentially wagers—often on the fluctuations of national currencies—based on models that aggregate and price risk. They describe how these financial instruments are changing the face of capitalism, undermining the power of nations and perpetrating a new and less visible form of domination on postcolonial societies. As they ask: How does one know about, let alone demonstrate against, an unlisted, virtual, offshore corporation that operates in an unregulated electronic space using a secret proprietary trading strategy to buy and sell arcane financial instruments? LiPuma and Lee provide a necessary look at the obscure but consequential role of financial derivatives in the global economy.

Over the last decade dealing in derivative financial instruments (basically forwards, futures, options and combinations of these), particularly in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market has become a central activity for major wholesale banks and financial institutions. Measured in terms of notional principal amount, OTC derivatives outstanding are near, if not greater than, US$10 trillion, even after deduction of double-counting for intra-dealer transactions. Major new regulatory initiatives, including proposed new capital requirements, are under consideration as a means of reducing systemic risk. This paper examines the concept of systemic risk -- that failure of one firm will lead to the failure of a large number of other firms or indeed the collapse of the international financial system. Alternative proposed definitions are considered and integrated and the effects of OTC derivatives on these risks discussed. The key conclusion is that systemic risk has been reduced by the development of the OTC derivatives market due to shifting economic risks to those better able either to bear the risk or, in many cases, cancel it against offsetting risks. The implications of the Basle II capital proposals for systemic risk are analyzed and shown to increase this risk due to encouraging transactions which increase portfolio risks of the dealers and discouraging transactions which decrease their portfolio risk.

It is now widely recognized that an uncontrolled "derivatives revolution" triggered one of the most spectacular worst-case scenarios of modern times. This book - the most cogent legal analysis of the subject yet to appear in any language - lays bare the core role played by the failure to adequately regulate derivatives in the financial crisis of recent years. The author's insistence that derivatives must be viewed not as profit-seeking investments but as risk management tools - and his well-grounded prescriptions to ensure that they are regulated in that way - sheds clear light on the best way for companies, financial institutions, and hedge funds to move forward in their use of these useful but highly hazardous instruments. This book clearly shows how such elements as the following fit into the legal analysis of derivatives, and how proper regulation will preserve their usefulness and economic value: ; derivatives allow for the most efficient and cost-effective risk fractioning, hence risk taking, techniques ever conceived; derivatives allow for all measurable and identifiable risks that may exist in modern finance; the ability to isolate risks and insure against risk exposures is the key to the very survival of modern financial markets; risk buyers effectively take on financial exposure to various types of risk while hedgers unload unwanted exposures; derivatives allow domestic investors to acquire exposure to foreign markets without the necessity of dealing with foreign laws, foreign investments, currency exchange, or foreign fiscal regimes; derivatives increase social welfare by making it easier and less expensive to carry out many types of financial transactions; derivatives allow governments to insulate, manage, hedge or concentrate risks deriving from financial, meteorological, and even geopolitical exposure; and derivatives allow radical changes to financial and risk structure to be performed silently and rapidly. To the question: how do we ensure that a company trading derivatives is regulated effectively? this work offers a clear and convincing answer. The author's detailed recommendations for regulatory and corporate governance measures are designed to prevent excessive risk taking, the emergence of rogue traders, and ultimately the emergence of another systemic disturbance caused by chains of derivatives-related losses.

This book puts forward a holistic approach to post-crisis derivatives regulation, providing insight into how new regulation has dealt with the risk that OTC derivatives pose to financial stability. It discusses the implications that post crisis regulation has had on central counterparties and the risk associated with clearing of OTC derivatives. The author offers a novel solution to tackle the potential negative externalities from the failure of a central counterparty and identifies potential new risks arising from post crisis reforms.

What are the links between things as diverse as the prices of pork bellies, interest rates, and corporate stock? They are all being translated into risk and priced through the system of derivative markets. Financial derivatives are now the largest form of financial transaction in the world, and they are transforming in pervasive ways the lived experience of capitalist economies. Financial derivatives are anchoring the global financial system and challenging the conventional understanding of ownership, money and capital. These challenges are examined in this book, providing a significant reinterpretation of contemporary capitalism that will be of interest to both social scientists and conventional finance scholars.

This book offers a completely new and unique introduction to the economics of international relations. It treats all the traditional major themes of international relations theory while giving each a refreshing new twist with the incorporation of the influence of private power, particularly in the realm of war and peace. It reframes the history of the modern global economy and politics by thoroughly purging the myth of the market, a systematic blindness to private power. It not only draws on, but also illuminates major themes and empirical findings of comparative politics, business history, business strategy, business cycle theory, social evolutionary theory as well as the practical wisdom of traders and investors. Part one introduces the major concepts of competing theories of international relations, emphasizing a unique approach, corporatism. Part two introduces the critical importance dynamic and oppositional analysis of issues. Part three traces the rise of the modern world from the mercantilist period until the rise of modern corporate organizations and the demise of imperialism in the crucible of World War I. Part four begins with the origins of the contemporary dominance of business internationalism before and during World War II, then analyzes three major facets of the postwar era: the unification of much of Europe, the industrialization of the Third World, and the Cold War and its aftermath. The final chapter considers the present and future of a fairly peaceful yet economically unstable world. This book presents a refreshing and exciting portrayal of the global economy which challenges every major subject from money to markets to the business cycle. This book eschews the economics of dull averages to restore the drama of contending business forces, struggling for wealth and, in the process, influencing war and peace.

An in-depth guide to global and risk finance based on financial models and data-based issues that confront global financial managers. Globalization, Gating, and Risk Finance offers perspectives on global risk finance in a world with economies in transition. Developed from lectures and research projects investigating the consequences of globalization and strategic approaches to fundamental economics and finance, it provides an approach based on financial models and data; it includes many case-study problems. The book departs from the traditional macroeconomic and financial approaches to global and strategic risk finance, where economic power and geopolitical issues are intermingled to create complex and forward-looking financial systems. Chapter coverage includes: Globalization: Economies in Collision; Data, Measurements, and Global Finance; Global Finance: Utility, Financial Consumption, and Asset Pricing; Macroeconomics, Foreign Exchange, and Global Finance; Foreign Exchange Models and Prices; Asia: Financial Environment and Risks; Financial Currency Pricing, Swaps, Derivatives, and Complete Markets; Credit Risk and International Debt; Globalization and Trade: A Changing World; and Compliance and Financial Regulation. Provides a framework for global financial and inclusive models, some of which are not commonly covered in other books. Considers risk management, utility, and utility-based multi-agent financial theories. Presents a theoretical framework to assist with a variety of problems ranging from derivatives and FX pricing to bond default to trade and strategic regulation. Provides detailed explanations and mathematical proofs to aid the readers’ understanding. Globalization, Gating, and Risk Finance is appropriate as a text for graduate students of global finance, general finance, financial engineering, and international economics, and for practitioners.