The Fin Bros Are Coming for Your Asbestos Claim

On an ever-expanding quest to package and sell debt, the financial sector has discovered asbestos litigation.

Those wacky finance folks are at it again. Just when you thought there wasn’t a debt they hadn’t already sliced, diced, and sold like a pound of raw meat at the butcher’s, they’ve come up with a new way to continue to profit off the misfortune of others. This time, they’ve set their sights on asbestos claims – a gold mine of sorts for asbestos companies, given that they’ve allowed them to shrug their shoulders and say “better luck next time” while continuing to profit.

Yes, you heard that right: your potential payout for an enfermedad relacionada con el asbesto is now the latest currency in the ever-growing game of financial roulette. A loved one gets diagnosed with cancer, and you’re offered a few bucks to stay off the backs of those responsible. You each go on your merry way, and wouldn’t you know it? Their logo still adorns buildings, billboards, and passing vehicles, as if nothing ever happened.

Gaming the Value of Human Health

You see, these financial wizards are…well, just that. They’re wizards at recognizing the human need for instant gratification, mixing in some time limitations, and spitting out a solution that is much more palatable than waiting for justice to grind through the courts at a snail’s pace. It’s an offer that’s difficult to refuse, and for good reason. Disease diagnoses tend to be met with poor prognoses – time is of the essence and bills are piling up.

What you will never hear a company say is, “You didn’t deserve a difficult time and financial woes to begin with.” Essentially, it’s easier to throw money at the problem rather than admitting fault and deciding it’s time to close the doors for good.

No, no – profits must prevail. So, instead, they’ve concocted a plan, estimating just how much cash they might eventually have to fork over for asbestos injuries, then turning that future liability into something they can trade today. Think of it like betting on how many people will lose at Russian roulette and selling those bets before the trigger is pulled. Welcome to the world of asbestos claim securitization, where your suffering is just another line item on a spreadsheet.

The ethical considerations? Well, let’s just say those are about as carefully considered as the health of trabajadores in the early days of asbestos mining. But hey, at least you can sleep soundly knowing that somewhere out there a hedge fund manager is turning your future payout into a shiny new yacht. So, buckle up, because the Fin Bros are here, and they’re not just coming for your house, your pension, or the money under your mattress – this time, they have their sights on your longevity.

Turning Future Capital into Immediate Money

The 2007-2008 global financial crisis was a spectacular display of financial innovation gone horribly wrong. It was triggered by the collapse of the real estate market, which was propped up by an intricate house of cards known as credit default swaps (CDS). These financial instruments were, in theory, designed to be a form of insurance against the default of mortgage-backed securities. But behind the mask, they existed to allow investors to bet on whether homeowners could pay their mortgages or not – like a year-long stay in Vegas, but with people’s livelihoods on the line.

Selling Debt: Securitization as a Safe Harbor

As housing prices plummeted and defaults soared, these securities quickly became toxic, dragging down the banks that held them and triggering a chain reaction that brought the economy to its knees. The irony, of course, is that the very instruments that were supposed to manage risk ended up magnifying it to disastrous proportions. This is a prime example of how turning future liabilities into tradable assets can backfire when the underlying assumptions are as shaky as a Jenga tower with an unstable bottom row.

Ziggy Stardust and the Song Catalog from Mars

Fast forward to 1997, and David Bowie, a creative by trade, became the first rock star to apply this principle to his music career. Issuing “Bowie Bonds,” he offered a revolutionary financial product that allowed him to receive a lump sum payout upfront in exchange for future royalties from his catalog. Investors who bought these bonds were essentially betting that the musician’s tones would continue to generate steady income for years to come. After all, it’s Bowie we’re talking about – an artist whose empire was constructed on an unmatched passion for fashion, musical freedom, and fandom, until his demise in 2016.

Unlike the CDS betting on people’s ability to keep their homes, Bowie Bonds allowed buyers to gamble on the enduring appeal of Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke. His move was seen as a stroke of genius – a way for an artist to leverage future earnings for immediate capital without waiting for the royalty checks to trickle in one by one. It was financial innovation with a much lower chance of crashing the global economy, and yet, at its core, the concept was the same.

This concept hasn’t just limited to rockstars and real estate moguls, either. It’s also managed to find its way into the much grimmer arena of asbestos. 

But where David Bowie’s securitization was designed to let him live out the rest of his life on funds he wouldn’t be alive for, Wall Street’s latest debt packaging aims to hold off paying asbestos victims till they die and the company escapes liability.

And this brings us to the Texas Two-Step, a nifty little maneuver companies use to limit their liability by spinning off asbestos-related debt into a separate entity, often one designed to go bankrupt. It’s financial innovation at its sneakiest – an evil plan even Bowie may have been impressed with (and not in a good way).

Texas Two-Step and Asbestos Trusts

El Texas Two-Step sounds like a country dance, but in the world of finance and corporate law, it’s more of a tap-dance around responsibility. This legal strategy allows a company to split itself into two entities – one that holds the profitable assets and another that shoulders the blame (in this case, asbestos liabilities). The latter entity then files for bankruptcy, leaving victims scrambling to get compensation from a much-reduced pool of funds. A slick way of saying, “Sorry, not sorry.”

Asbestos Dumping: Companies Trying to Use Securitization to Dispose of Asbestos Liability 

Asbestos trusts were originally set up to provide compensation to those affected by exposure. These trusts are largely funded by the proceeds from insurance companies, like MetLife, who played a significant role in the industry at the time. It’s a twisted tale: MetLife not only insured asbestos companies but also actively participated in covering up the dangers of asbestos, limiting regulations around it, and even tucking research away that proved its carcinogenic properties. The companies profited, the workers suffered, and when the lawsuits started piling up, the Texas Two-Step was brought forth.

Asbestos Companies and the PR War

In the early days of litigation, it was revealed that companies had known for many years asbestos was deadly, but instead of saying enough is enough and overhauling operations, they did everything in their power to keep this under wraps. High-ranking executives moved sick workers to different positions when they could no longer perform their usual duties well, rather than removing the asbestos (the root of the problem) or warning them of its dangers. Industry-funded research institutions like Saranac Laboratory twisted scientific facts to downplay the health risks, and organizations like the Asbestos Information Association (AIA) and the Industrial Hygiene Foundation (IHF) were created to spread misinformation and protect industry profits.

Gaslighting at its finest. A story of corporate greed, scientific manipulation, and legal loopholes—all in the name of maintaining margins. And now, with the Texas Two-Step, it seems the asbestos industry has found yet another way to one-two step around taking any meaningful action.

All the Ways the Dangers Were Buried

Some repetition here to drill home the message: The dangers of asbestos didn’t just suddenly appear out of nowhere. They were systematically buried by those who stood to profit.

As early as the 1930s, high-ranking executives in the asbestos industry were fully aware that their products had devastating health effects. Yet, instead of tackling the issue head on and emptying their pocketbooks in the process, they brushed the dangers of asbestos dust under the rug and called it good.

The Asbestos Cancer Cover-Up

One of the most egregious examples of this cover-up was the involvement of Saranac Laboratory, a respected health research facility that was supposed to be investigating the effects of exposure. Instead of revealing the true dangers, though, Saranac, under the guidance of Dr. Anthony Lanza, worked with industry execs to manipulate data and suppress findings. Together they downplayed the risks, twisted facts, and issued false reports.

The asbestos industry also funded front groups like the Asbestos Information Association (AIA) and the Industrial Hygiene Foundation (IHF), which masqueraded as independent organizations but were really just mouthpieces for the industry. These groups added to the treasure trove of fake data circling around, producing faux narratives and providing misleading testimony.

Even when these risks were seemingly impossible to ignore, boy did these entities try. Rather than taking action to protect workers and the public, the industry doubled down on its efforts to keep the truth well-covered.  

Dancing with Danger

The story of asbestos is one of doom and gloom, filled with corporate deceit, manipulation of scientific data, and legal loopholes that allowed companies to keep their bottom lines even as their workforces were facing life-changing illnesses and even succumbing to disease. The Texas Two-Step is just the latest in a long line of strategies designed to dodge responsibility and avoid paying the full price for the damage asbestos caused.

Today, these industries continue to push back hard on attempts to eliminate asbesto altogether. Because of this the EPA has only succeeded in a partial ban, and asbestos continues to be incorporated into modern-day products.

Financial wizards continue to find new ways to package and sell debt, too, turning future liabilities into present-day cash flows. They’ve conveniently forgotten that behind every claim is a real person who has suffered in a very real way as a result of corporate greed.

While the financial world continues to innovate, sometimes with a tricky twist, it’s important to keep an eye on who really stands to gain – and who will lose – when future capital is liquefied into immediate money. Buddha once said there are three things that cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth. Sooner or later, someone will have to pay the piper.