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Cryptocurrencies. In the runup to the 2008 crisis, a commonly heard mantra was "yeah, subprime lending is fucked up, but it's a small fraction of the economy,
by brazzy 4y ago
Cryptocurrencies.
In the runup to the 2008 crisis, a commonly heard mantra was "yeah, subprime lending is fucked up, but it's a small fraction of the economy, it can't cause that much damage". Turned out that it could, via the CDO shenanigans.
I would not at all be surprised if someone has already cooked up a similar leveraged dependency from the "real economy" to crypto markets.
- komaromy 4y agoI'd be more open to this if we hadn't already seen wild swings in the crypto market (BTC is down ~50% from its 12-month peak) without much in the way of broader implications.
- SkyMarshal 4y agoIt depends entirely on how much cryptocurrencies are being used as collateral for leverage, which was the main factor that amplified the GFC. MBS’s and MBS-based CDO’s were used as collateral for massive amounts of leverage (up to 30:1 for the commercial banks, and 100:1 for Fannie & Freddie). Since the housing market had never crashed, that collateral was considered reliable enough for significant amounts of leverage. Turns out it wasn’t. But cryptos have never been considered remotely that reliable by the broader financial system. Thus there is probably little to no leverage using cryptos as collateral. Crypto is currently crashing, but it will only take down itself and not 30 to 100 times as much leverage with it.