Though not always reliable (see: credit default swap pricing in the lead up to the financial crash in 2007/8).

A credit default swap is not an insurance contract; you're in the world of 'buyer beware' not 'utmost good faith'.

Even the monoline insurance wrappers around the various credit products were very atypically constructed insurance contracts.

Not the swap itself, but the assessments provided by the ratings agencies.

Are they? What’s the alternative that gets all the undeserved attention?

Simple Death rates?

Insurance rates are developed by financially-motivated actuaries that consider a whole bunch of variables in order to create market-efficient rates.

Well, in this case, the testimony of cops and politicians themselves