[They had giant mortgage bond positions financed with overnight loans.
It’s never been a secret.]
Indeed. As someone who shorted this almost to its takeout price, but chickened out before the denouement in fear of a bailout that might keep shareholders whole, I had more than a passing interest in what transpired. Amusing that the author is using a looking glass version of the true events as a prop for a whole new fairy tale about how precious metals are the future of investing.
Next he'll say Lehman failed because of short gold positions.