Correct. People who want to insist that derivatives will kill us always quote the notional amounts. For swaps the notional amount is a purely fictitious balance upon which the real interests payment are made. The actual risk is the discounted value of the maximum difference between the fixed and variable interest payments.
That's not to say that there aren't some dangerous derivatives out there. Credit default swaps are essentially bond insurance. AIG was allowed to sell far more CDS than they had assets to pay off with, so wound up costing the tax payers a bundle when they got bailed out. Sellers of CDS should have to have the assets needed to back up their promises.
And no, the crisis wasn't caused by the Illuminati or the Jews. It was the Reptilians. David Icke tells me so.