I had a sinking feeling when the inventor of the CDO appeared in this article. The housing bubble occurred, in part, because there was optimism that acquiring

I had a sinking feeling when the inventor of the CDO appeared in this article. The housing bubble occurred, in part, because there was optimism that acquiring a certain tangible asset - a house - was a sure path to prosperity for the buyer. And the buyers of mortgage-backed securities had decades of data showing that these were solid investments. What about intangible assets like knowing how to code? Is this what Lambda School is really doing? And like the housing bubble, once the originator can sell the debt, they have some incentives to inflate expectations on both sides. Perhaps Lambda School’s ISA-selling isn’t vulnerable to this flaw. Maybe the ISA-buyers are doing due diligence. But you would have thought the same was true in 2008 too. Like everyone with a Twitter account I’ve interacted with Austen. And I had a mildly positive impression, or at least I thought he deserved more credit. Not sure about that any more. I would like to see his response.