June was the time of year when the sun's rays first began to feel viciously hot.
Valon, who had managed to turn stone into gold after just thirty days in Munich, couldn't resist the urge to light a cigarette as he gazed down at the street scene from the insurance company's window.
They were mortgage-backed securities, now nicknamed Golden Hen Securities because buying them was a sure thing—their value always went up, just like the fabled hen that laid golden eggs. What the retail investors didn't know was that at first, the price rose because the securities were genuinely profitable. Now, it was rising simply because the gullible masses were stubbornly propping it up.
Did the banks know? They did, but they were also making money, and making money had never been this easy.
