President Barack Magoo's "The Economy Is Headed in the Right Direction"

Facts and the Future(?) 4 Financial Reforms & Derivatives: Derivatives, especially synthetics, are a problem of breathtaking scale that cannot be cleaned up with a quick government fix. It is currently estimated that there are $684 trillion in outstanding derivatives and another $800 trillion in "shadow" or off-balance-sheet derivatives (which are impossible to calculate because they are not reported), totaling well over $1.4 quadrillion. This is roughly 27 times the global GDP at $55 trillion, and 7 times aggregate global asset values (of stocks, real estate and private business) at $200 trillion. Obviously, this total amount is not at risk, but the derivatives are based ultimately on underlying asset values or assumptions that if...