I was invited by Manfrommiddletown to stray from my usual Blog home at European Tribune and post on the subject of Credit Default Swaps.

I find it hard to post on CDS without reference to the wider context, and in fact the reference here yesterday to the proposed Gas OPEC gives me the perfect excuse, since I have in recent days had a direct and intimate exposure to that initiative.

I have just returned to Scotland from ten days in Teheran, and was asked - by the head of the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Energy Commission among others, to propose my ideas as to a possible structure for such a global gas market initiative.

For those who don't know, I was once upon a time a Director of the International Petroleum Exchange (now ICE Futures Europe), and since then have been busy in the area where markets and the Internet converge.