We document the sharp increase in trading activity, gross and net notional outstanding, and overall premiums in the U.S. credit default swaps (CDS) market that took place during the 2023 debt ceiling episode. Unlike the periods leading up to the 2011 and 2013 debt ceiling events, we show that in...

This paper proposes the volatility of sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) as a measurement of economic uncertainty. Sovereign CDS provide protection against losses from sovereign defaults and are traded for almost all countries by the world’s largest financial institutions. The premium for...