Not quite. The media saying that the loan was for playing with the stock market is erroneous. The $175M loan was to build a new building in the east village. Ho

Not quite. The media saying that the loan was for playing with the stock market is erroneous. The $175M loan was to build a new building in the east village. However, when the building was complete, some geniuses decided that the leftover money would be better spent in the stock market rather than using it towards paying back MetLife. They did calculations and saw that the gains from new investments would outpace losses from the additional interest. It was a hedge, basically. But then the recession hit, and naturally that investment failed, leaving Cooper both without gains from the investment AND with extra debt burden.