Why the subprime mess is contained

Felix Salmon expresses it in terms of equity offsets:

The entire market in subprime debt is just 1.4% of the size of global equity markets. Or, to put it another way, a 1.4% downward fluctuation in stocks erases the same amount of value as if all subprime-backed bonds were collectively marked to $0.

I think the U.S. accounts for almost half of those markets. And I said I wasn't that worried last year.