Finance History Lessons

FT.com - The dream machine: invention of credit derivatives

This may or may not be free for non-subscribers. If you can't read it, I suggest withdrawing whatever money you're currently spending on any periodicals that are not the FT of the Economist and subscribing (yes, I'm including the WSJ in the rubbish heap).

Anyway, this is a rather well written, humorous, and (for me) deeply interesting narrative about how JPM bankers essentially created the credit derivatives market. While Goldman may have been lauded on the cover of the Economist for the survey on risk, JPM has certainly contributed its fair share to the revolution in risk management through such innovations. Worth a read!