Stock market is peanuts. Derivatives are where the money is, as big as 600 trillion dollars.
Questions remain:
For every swap financial industry sold, who was selling it? Where the money went? Who are the recepients?
Recent BIS report indicated, there are still 600 trillion dollar worth of derivatives on the market, most of them are interest rate swap. Who sold it? What if Euro and US bond market collapse that interest rate rises rapidly to cause selling party not be able to fulfill the obligations?
E.g. AIG sold so much swap out of the thin air, the company got rich, but where the big chunk went?
AIG can not fulfill their obligations so government bailed them out.
I heard a quote that Rothchild family possesses trillions of wealth. Not sure it is true to the numbers but one can bet it will be true to the certain extend that the family makes Bill Gates and Warren Buffett look like migets.