How do CDOs and CDSs influence the crisis of 2008

Everybody has heard about the “subprime” crisis but do we really know how it occurred and why this phenomenon had such an impact on our economies. One aspect of the answer to this question lies in the trade of credit default swaps (CDSs). These financial products led to less transparency in the markets and to a very collectively vulnerable financial system. This created a vicious circle that had not been anticipated by our financial regulators. In this paper, we will discuss how it occurred and what could have been done to avoid, or at lease reduce, the impact of these products