They Crashed the Economy in 2008. Now They’re Back and Bigger Than Ever.
Wall Street expects to sell more than $335 billion in asset-backed debt this year. Remember that conference in ‘The Big Short’? It just drew a record 10,000.
At 10,000 people, it was the biggest ever SFVegas—the annual gathering for the structured-finance industry. The last time it boomed like this was 2006 and 2007. Mortgage bonds were selling like crazy, and this crowd was flying high.
Then these financiers crashed the U.S. economy and sent the global financial system to the brink.
Now, structured finance is back.
Wall Street is once again creating and selling securities backed by everything—the more creative the better—including corporate loans and consumer credit-card debt, lease payments on cars, airplanes and golf carts, and payments to data centers. Once dominated by bonds backed by home mortgages, deals now reach into nearly every cranny of the economy.
It seems a particularly good time to loosen financial reporting and controls, no?
