These financial “weapons of mass destruction”, invented by one of its administrators and which torpedoed Credit Suisse

The famous investor Warren Buffett had described them as financial “weapons of mass destruction”. “CDS”, for Credit Default Swap, are used to hedge against the risk of default of a bond of a country or a company. During the euro crisis, they were widely used by speculators to bet on the default of Greece in particular. However, instead of using them as insurance, these moderately well-meaning investors bought them “naked”, that is to say without even holding the debt.