I am not sure exactly when I received The Subprime Primer, a slideshow that someone emailed me early in 2008. I do recall thinking it was unlikely ever to be surpassed as an introduction to the financial chain reaction that began as I was writing The Ascent of Money and reached its climax in the months after the failure of Lehman Brothers, the 10th anniversary of which fell yesterday.

Illustrated with foul-mouthed stick men, The Subprime Primer’s 45 slides told the story of how “crappy” mortgage loans originated by “Ace Mortgage Brokers” came to be owned by “First Bank of Bankland, Inc”, which sold them to “RSG Investment Bank of Wall Street”. The “really smart guys” (RSG) were the ones who came up with the