The top five U.S. banks, which enjoy both privileges, control 97% of swaps trading in a market worth trillions of notional value.

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Some have managed only by counting in the notional value of company services, such as training, along with any real cash or goods.

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By late 2007, the notional value of outstanding credit-default swaps was about sixty trillion dollars more than four times the size of the U.S. gross domestic product.

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In other words, just the dollar version of Libor sets the price for deals with a notional value equal to nine times global economic output or GDP.

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Another news story that was blown out of proportion was the notional value of credit default swaps and the power of those swaps to keep the stock market headed downward, during the recent bear market.

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