“Here’s an idea,” the wide-belted youngster seemed confident, “let’s pull in a couple of hundred billion from overseas and lend it to some poor people. Then, we can pile all of these mortgages into a heap and sell it off in slices.”

Heads around the table nodded, and he carried on.

“The best part is, we can get the top slice of this rated triple-A, so even the most conservative investment groups will want a piece of it.”

“Hang on a moment.” Heads turned and some faces hardened as they realised who it was who had spoken. “We’re lending someone else’s money to some people who can’t, in a million years, hope to pay it back, then selling on bad debt to pension funds?”

“Yes.” The proposer was unshaken. “Except we don’t call it that. We’re selling Structured investment programs. We make a killing and some other shmuck takes the risk.”

The idea seemed so crazy that it could only happen in a ficly, yet it was about to get suddenly crazier.

“Let me explain Credit Default Swaps…”