Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 3:20 pm
Journalists have spent many days and millions of words hashing over the news that banking giant JPMorgan Chase lost billions of dollars trading "synthetic" derivatives.
I am one of those journalists who, more or less, can understand what the bank says it was trying to do, i.e., hedge against loan losses. But here's what I have a hard time explaining:
What does this kind of complex trading have to do with the price of eggs?
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