Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. A BRIEF PRIMER ON COLLATERALIZED DEBT OBLIGATIONS -- III. DEFAULT PROBABILITY AND DEFAULT CORRELATION, IN STCDOS -- IV. IDIOSYNCRATIC AND SYSTEMIC RISK IN STCDO TRANCHES -- V. DATA AND EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK -- VI. RESULTS -- VII. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

This paper examines several key global market conditions, such as a proxy for market uncertainty and measures of interbank funding stress, to assess financial volatility and the likelihood of crisis. Using Markov regime-switching techniques, it shows that the Lehman Brothers failure was a...