2013
CDS Mess
Financial Literacy Card Game
A card game in which players act as an investment bank — packaging mortgages into Collateralized Debt Obligations, selling them to unsuspecting investors, and using Credit Default Swaps to insure or bet against their own products. The mechanics directly simulate the real instruments that drove the 2008 crisis, including a bailout round where too-big-to-fail status is decided by a die roll — turning an opaque financial system into something players learn by exploiting it themselves.
- Collaborators Jennifer Gradecki, Devin Wilson
In CDS Mess, players take a first-hand look at factors that led to the 2008 economic crisis by taking on the role of an investment bank. In this game, players package mortgages into Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO) and then sell them to unsuspecting investors. CDOs can be made from any combination of AAA rated mortgages, toxic mortgages, or Credit Default Swaps that reference a mortgage. (CDOs that contain Credit Default Swap references are known as synthetic CDOs). Players can also use Credit Default Swaps (CDS) as insurance against potential losses, and to place bets that some CDOs will fail. When liquidity dries up (there are no cards left), the game moves to the bailout round. Players attempt to get a government bailout by rolling a die, a number less than the number of CDOs a player has made means they are bailed out. If a player has made six or more CDOs, they are Too Big To Fail!
CDS Mess is sold at cost and is available for purchase on Game Crafter.