Since property accounts for so much of the financial system's aggregate balance-sheet, losses from real-estate busts are likely to be synchronised across banks.

ECONOMIST: Bricks and slaughter

Statistical measures of the maximum trading losses these firms could face on those positions suggest that, in aggregate, they are taking more risk.

ECONOMIST: The financial industry

"Small losses in one sector of the credit market can have an outsized impact on aggregate economic activity, " said Federal Reserve Board Governor Frederic Mishkin at a conference in New York Friday.

FORBES: The $400 Billion Black Hole