*Gerald Corrigan, managing director at Goldman Sachs and a former president and ceo of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was asked about Warren Buffet's famous description of credit derivatives as financial weapons of mass destruction. "Warren Buffet is one of the most delightful human beings in captivity," he quipped. "I disagree with him, but he's brilliant. You ignore his advice at your own peril." He then dispensed his own analogy, "Credit-default swaps are like prescription drugs, they have side effects."
* Trains and targets were other popular metaphors. "The credit derivatives market is a train that has left the station and will continue to accelerate," said Joel Telpner, partner at Mayer Brown Rowe & Mawe. "It is a market that keeps chugging along." Said another panelist, "We are really making progress, but it's a moving target."
