I find it really amusing that you noted &quot;then credit default swaps were stopped in their tracks before they destroyed the economy&quot; as one of the critical junctures in the US economy.  It was, and most people dont realize that.  CDS allowed large parts of the CDOs to become AAA and enabled all manners of craziness in 2002-2007.<p>Sadly, it often gets blamed on Clinton&#x2F;Gore given the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 signed weeks before their term ended.  The reality was all about <i>how</i> it was implemented&#x2F;regulated&#x2F;enforced, which was all during Bush&#x27;s term.  You note correctly, things would have been very different under Gore.  For one thing, courageous individuals like Brooksley Born would have been allowed into the discussion: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Brooksley_Born#Born_and_the_OTC_derivatives_market" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Brooksley_Born#Born_and_the_OT...</a>