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Tom Au
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In the early 1990s, during the middle of a secular bull market, I began work on "A Modern Approach To Graham and Dodd Investing," that was not particularly suited for the decade of the 1990s, but was ideally suited for the following "Lost Decade" of the 2000s. In the early... More
My company:
Carryl Capital Management
My book:
A Modern Approach to Graham and Dodd Investing
  • One Good (Financial) Idea Coming Out of Washington 0 comments
    Jun 11, 2009 12:04 PM

    Distrustful as I am of Washington, generally, and this Administration in particular, I like one idea that's being floated. That is the creation of a new oversigjht board to regulate over the counter derivatives.

    Derivatives are dangerous, or as Warren Buffett put it, "finanical weapons of mass destruction." That's because their notional value is far greater than the actual investment aka :"skin in the game." Therefore, creating another agency to oversee them is a good idea.

    Within the pool of derivatives, the over-the-counter variety are the most dangerous. That is because they are most likely to be "off the books," which is to say the most likely to be badly accounted for. That's why devoting a separate agency to track this problem makes sense.

    I'm no fan of regulation. But I will aceept regulation to prevent a worse evil. Derivatives seem to be a worse evil.

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