Wow, fascinating stuff. I'll share this with the banking guys on our team. (My company writes very serious banking risk management software.)

As you point out though (and not to diminish the fact that you were right and i was wrong), ultimately it's about the profitability of the accounts. Securitization makes markets more liquid, but barring the Greater Fool theory (which of course is not insigificant) it doesn't create profits where there were none.

So I still kind of wonder... how much does each account where the person grabs the bonus points and run cost, and how much profit do they make from an average "successful" account where the person keeps and uses the card long-term?