It greatly magnified and concentrated the mortgage valuation problem, allowed derivative investors to game the system and added to the perception of insolvency for many of the financial institutions which then had to be bailed out.

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Its founder, Nicolas Bazan, a 60-year-old neuroscientist, has a seemingly simple and elegant answer to the pain problem: chemically combine a derivative of acetaminophen with a saccharinelike component.

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The larger problem is that the perpetrators are still at large and the system that allowed huge derivative gambles on mortgages is still in place.

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Delays in confirming and settling derivative trades, a blind spot exploited by Mr Kerviel, are seen as an industry-wide problem.

ECONOMIST: Soci��t�� G��n��rale

The problem with America's economy is that the last bubble, the "home-mortgage, derivative, credit default swap bubble" popped, as all economic bubbles eventually do.

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