The 2008 US housing crisis revealed the shortcomings of securitisation. The opaque, highly complex, interdependent process that moved slices of Kentucky home loans to buyers such as municipalities in Norway was inherently fragile.
The extreme confidence that enabled it to exist in the first place inherently set it up for failure. When one conveyor belt in the system failed, the entire chain collapsed.
The pandemic era is now raising similar concerns about the just-in-time supply chain model. The shortage of semiconductors from Taiwan, the stranding of the enormous Ever Given in the Suez Canal, and now the dearth of 40-foot metal containers have sent tsunami-like waves through global production. For want of chips, the highly complex, interdependent system of US car production has been badly disrupted.