Monty at Lehman Brothers

It was the early 2000s, and poor Monty was down on his luck.

An aging, out-of-work game hunter and security guard, Monty d been unemployed for quite some time. Fortunately, he was getting by, but living off the generosity of a family in southern California who had taken him in. Without them Monty would have almost certainly been living on the street.

But things started to change for Monty on a fateful day when his host family received a letter in the mail from a local bank-- addressed to Monty. They eagerly ripped open the letter to find that the bank had pre-approved old Monty for a substantial line of credit!

They all found this extraordinary… and not just because Monty had no job, no income, no assets (i.e. a classic “NINJA loan” from the early 2000s). What was particularly unique about this case is that Monty was a dog.

In case you’re too young to remember, the early 2000s was an era in which anyone and everyone was able to borrow money.
The Federal Reserve had slashed interest rates to zero-- which made borrowing look cheap… even free. And government policy was prompting banks to ignore all common sense and underwrite loans to anyone with a pulse… and occasionally some people without a pulse.
Dead people, homeless people, unemployed people, prison inmates, canines and cats… they were all approved for mortgages despite having no ability to make monthly payments.

Investment banks packaged up these dubious loans, mixing them with less frivolous loans. and dressed them up as special investment-grade bonds… and then the big Wall Street ratings agencies slapped the highest quality “AAA” rating on them as if they were risk-free.

The whole system blew up in 2008, causing multiple financial institutions to collapse-- triggering the Global Financial Crisis.