Even as the United States enjoys an economic expansion, there is an undercurrent of concern among economic analysts who follow financial markets. Some feel that the expansion of the credit derivatives markets poses the threat of a crisis similar to the Long-Term Capital Management debacle of...

The financial crisis of 2008, like the pandemic Spanish flu 90 years prior, spanned the globe twice and caused substantial destruction. It also introduced an entirely new lexicon of economic and regulatory terminology, such as “contagion” and “systemic shock,” into the popular and...