There is nothing particularly wrong with derivatives. They were just the vehicle used to commit a massive fraud on retirement funds. Like a truck full of boxed

There is nothing particularly wrong with derivatives. They were just the vehicle used to commit a massive fraud on retirement funds. Like a truck full of boxed goods being shipped to a store, where the people packing the trucks were filling them with garbage (and occasionally drugs) and fronting the door with "real" product, then paying the inspectors to not even look in the back of the truck.