Listen up! Listen up to what Fed Chairman Bernanke has to say about commercial real estate. He said that the market for securities backed by commercial mortgages had "completely shut down." This is a serious if not devastating statement. Can we infer that the market for credit default swaps (CDSs) has shut down? If so we are at the brink of a new financial situation.
Mr Bernanke also stated that continued deterioration in commercial property with defaults rising sharply would present a "difficult" challenge for the economy. Prices for commercial real estate have fallen 35% since the market's peak.
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Originally a CDS (credit default swap) was a protection against the default of an underlying bond, usually a mortgage. It was a fine idea. 

