Securitization-once a fairly straightforward means of offering collateral for investment-has mushroomed into a massively complex area of financial practice. The central role occupied by such risk-distributing products as collateral debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), collateral loan obligations (CLOs), and credit derivatives has given rise to one of the most crucial inquiries of our era: Is the financial collapse that threatens the world financial system due merely to rogue traders? Or is there something in the derivative idea itself that spells inevitable disaster? Most important, can we isolate the truly productive aspects of securitization and learn to recognise pitfalls in advance? As always in such ideational minefields, it is the legal practitioners who are expected to provide guidance to distressed investors and asset dealers. Hence this vital new book.