Yes, the story is not new, but the “interest” in Cassano, at least in The City, seems to be getting hotter. As you said, better late than never.
Not surprisingly, both publication are British. And the story, both about the principals and the instruments (CDS), deserves to be more widely known and better understood in US.
Ambrose did maintain in his blog that the crisis “originated” in UK, which most people - unfamiliar with the story - would find shocking and probably simply dismiss him as ignorant.
They usually do that, and he now goes under the name "Armageddon" Evans-Pritchard. The problem is, when it comes to the financial crisis - he has been right and he has been early!
Needs to be confirmed I think I read that part of the reason AIG liked CDS being written in its London office is that the UK was even more hands off that the USA for such derivatives operations
UK is very serious about “The City” and London being the capital of international finance. So I would not be surprised if this were true