A recap on what exactly is Credit Default Swaps,
A credit default swap (CDS) is a credit derivative contract between two counterparties, whereby the "buyer" or "fixed rate payer" pays periodic payments to the "seller" or "floating rate payer" in exchange for the right to a payoff if there is a default or "credit event" in respect of a third party or "reference entity".
From the CBSNews video below, Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former director of trading and markets for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, said
It is an insurance contract, but they've been very careful not to call it that because if it were insurance, it would be regulated. So they use a magic substitute word called a 'swap,' which by virtue of federal law is deregulated
These complex financial instruments and very structured were designed by mathematicians and physicists, who used algorithms and computer models to reconstitute the unreliable loans in a way that was supposed to eliminate and mitigate most of the underlying risk. They thought these will work but they turn out to be utterly darn wrong because human behaviour can never be modelled by mathematics.
A Look At Wall Street's Shadow Market [Text Version]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/05/60minutes/printable4502454.shtml
