As a former quant and now economist, I want to congratulate the author on correctly using the term Collateralized Debt Obligation! That is a great metaphor for what they’ve done.

I do want to write an article on “technical debt” at some point. “Debt” is not a great metaphor for the concept. Maybe “high viscosity code” might be better? The code cannot be changed easily to accommodate new features, so it feels like it has a high derivative. Debt is something else completely.