Should We Ban Naked CDSs?

I say, narrowly, no--that if we can get proper clearing, transparency, and capital adequacy requirements in place banning naked CDOs would not do any good and would do a little bit of harm. But it is a close call. And if we can't get proper clearing, transparency, and capital adequacy requirements in place then we should ban them.

Let's go back to first principles. The direct benefits of having more developed, liquid, and sophisticated financial markets are threefold:

They allow people to...