Derivatives - big money
I had never heard of the term derivative in relation to financial markets before (I'm far from an economist), but it seems with the amounts of money involved, they play a huge factor in the world economy.
In December 2007 they amounted to $596 trillion. (ref above Wiki article)
For perspective, in 2006, the US Gross Domestic Product was about $13 trillion, the GDP for the whole world that year about $56 trillion.
These numbers boggle my mind. $596 trillion is almost $100,000 for every living person in the world.
Am I missing something? (besides the $100k? :)