Extreme Money

In 2009 London’s Daily Mirror found the culprit responsible for the financial crisis – David Bowie, aka Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke. In 1997 he issued $55 million of 7.9-per-cent-per-annum ten-year Bowie Bonds backed by future royalties from 25 albums containing 287 songs, including Space Oddity, Starman, Jean Genie, Fame, Young American, Ashes to Ashes, Let’s Dance, China Girl and Modern Love. Bowie gave up ten years’ worth of royalties in return for $55 million up front.

While the Bowie Bond pioneered the securitisation of intellectual property rights, the technique itself had been used since the 1970s to repackage loans, especially ...