The Prodigal banker.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: RUNDLES [wrap-up] - Short story

A certain man, say a wealthy official of a rich and powerful country, had two sons, both bankers, who were perfect sons, and both maintained safety and soundness and met the needs of the flock with tradition, sobriety and well-collateralized lending instruments.

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Then one day the younger son asked his father for his share of the business, and he gathered up his pass books and prime-plus mortgages and lines of credit linked directly to A+ assets, and he headed off to a distant land. Here he found high-fee income in making deals, and others who would package his originations, securitize them, increase his capital as if by magic, and his wealth seemed to increase exponentially.

All of his training had taught him that much of this new life was questionable, but while his underwriting standards were clearly diminishing into the mist, no matter. His new partners, all great and powerful traders from an enchanting land called Wall Street, with access to new worlds and exotic transactions beyond the seas, urged him on with promises of untold riches and a status and a lifestyle that even kings would envy.

He would take his managers and directors, and their wives and hangers-on, to luxurious resorts with gold-lined streets, and all of the pleasures would be covered by shareholders now giddy with the promised wealth they were seeing in their papyrus portfolios.

The younger son lived for several years in a new go-go world of politicians and pension funds, and together they all found new sources of capital in things called McMansions and money markets, where one could shop for cash to make even more riches, bought from small merchants and former renters very eager to find their own place on Easy Street. After all, the gated community of Capital Gains had unlocked its stockade and invited all to enter and frolic in its manicured parks, broad avenues and sumptuous public houses. They even offered entry bonuses, like second homes in the Hamptons, Plasma TVs, trips to distant ports, and high-end German automobiles.

Almost without warning...