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Nowhere is it easier to be blase about big numbers than in the market for over-the-counter derivatives. Yet the numbers released by the Bank for International Settlements this morning, charting OTC derivative activity during the first half of this year, still manage to boggle.

Notional amounts covering all contract types “expanded at a brisk pace” — up from $297,670,000,000,000 to $369,906,000,000,000 in the period. They must have big calculators in Basel.

Lest we all drown in a sea of zeros, however, the BIS points us in the direction of gross market values, which measure the cost of replacing all existing contracts. This is seen as representing a better measure of market risk at any given point in time. The numbers here are much more manageable. Such values, which net off exposures between counterparties, expanded from $9,749,000,000,000 to $10,074,000,000,000 during the first six months.

Huh. In OTC land that must look like the overall market is in danger of going ex-growth.