Notably, concerns about the ability of Greece and a number of other euro-area countries to manage their sizable budget deficits and high levels of public debt spurred a broad-based withdrawal from risk-taking in global financial markets in the spring, resulting in lower stock prices and wider risk spreads in the United States.
A second, related factor contributing to the breakdown in price discovery is the recognition by investors of complexity and lack of transparency, both in the instruments themselves and in the markets more broadly.