Bowie Bond

  

Categories: Bonds, Banking

Yep. It's about David Bowie. In 1997, David Bowie—the rock star legend—created a new kind of bond to buy older recordings of his music. These bonds are backed by the revenues from Bowie's music. So if you owe Bowie bonds and your Uncle Harry is a big fan who's still buying CDs, more power to ya. The bonds were only for $55 million (that's not much by celeb standards)...but it's David Bowie. He wore those pants in Labyrinth, married Iman, and issued bonds.

Is there anything this man can't do?

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are Secured Bonds v Unsecu...53 Views

00:00

finance a la shmoop what are secured bonds versus unsecured bonds and

00:07

debentures okay so that's an insecure bond but we're talking about here is an [Insecure bond hiding under the sheets]

00:17

unsecured bond what is an unsecured bond well this is that was an unsecured bond

00:23

old school like 15 century old school it was just a handshake one guy promised to [People shake hands]

00:28

pay back another 400 pounds of barley in return for three sheep next year or

00:34

something like that and the sheep were the payment form not the guarantee and

00:38

the bond was loan emic bond ursins word in fact the promise to pay was secured

00:44

but by his word or commitment to repay the loans kind of old school debenture

00:49

unsecured bonds work similarly today corporations sell debentures to Wall [Corporations sending debentures to Wall St]

00:54

Street all the time debenture being a fancy word for an

00:57

unsecured bond it's just debt that the company promises [Definition of debenture]

01:01

to pay back well if they don't then oh well and yes the debenture holders could

01:05

in theory then take ownership of the equity of the company but in reality [Debenture holders take the majority of the company equity pie chart]

01:10

unsecured bonds when not paid back almost always mean the death of the CEOs

01:15

career and likely also of the careers of all the other members of the management [Gravestones for the management board]

01:20

team so while unsecured bonds are notionally more risky than secured bonds

01:25

well this issue hasn't been tested all that often in real life okay so if

01:29

that's an unsecured bond what's a secured bond well it's one that

01:34

is secured by a specific asset or value or other stores of wealth which get [Definition of secured bonds]

01:40

forfeited if the lendee doesn't pay back the lender on time and in accord with

01:46

the terms of the debt deal example the dung and the restless' is a company that [Sign for 'The Dung and the Restless']

01:51

makes fertilizer by collecting old political speeches and grinding them up [Speeches going into the grinding machine]

01:55

selling them to farmers in the Midwest you know for a coin but they also own a [Tractor spraying crops]

02:00

pork farm which is kind of separate from their main fertilizer biz they need [Hogs Gone Wild logo appears]

02:05

money to build a bigger grinder because politicians are giving more speeches

02:10

these days you the internet and all that and they [Politician being applauded]

02:12

pledged their pork farm as collateral behind that secured bond offering that [Collateral sign on the pork farm]

02:17

is if they don't pay back the bond interest and principle on time then they

02:22

lose the pork farm to the lenders yeah and that would be a pig mistake... [Guy snorts like a pig]

Up Next

Finance: What are Bonds?
393 Views

What are Bonds? The simplest explanation is that a bond is essentially an I.O.U. that is issued by a corporate or government institution to borrow...

Finance: What is a story bond?
7 Views

What is a story bond? Well, snuggle up...we'll tell you a story all about it.

Finance: What are the Different Types of Bonds?
424 Views

What are the different types of bonds? Well, a mortgage is the biggie. Then there are government bonds, which are at the bottom of the risk ladder....

Finance: What is a zero coupon bond?
15 Views

What is a zero coupon bond? Zero coupon bonds are an interesting investment because they don’t pay any interest. They are only desirable because...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)