40 Have been following and trying to understand this for a while because most commentators have put the potential debt default at between $400 -$700 trillion ... Soros is the lowest I have seen and the low figures are said to exclude the multipliers within the web. It appears to go something like: A loans to B with expected regular repayments. B insures with C in case it can't meet its repayments. A insures with D in case B can't meet its repayments. Both C & D spead the potential call with other insurers. But A has borrowed from Z to loan to B and therefore A is also a B (with associated insurances). And Z having loaned to A is also an A (with associated insurances)... and so the web grows ever wider.
Bear Stearns was bailed by the Fed because it is a major player in the web and if it had fallen it may have been the first domino.
