Sounds plausible. I assume they could cobble together a strategy where the company limps along zombie-like while interest rates are very low, then when rates go up they lots of companies go bankrupt simultaneously, a crisis is declared and the public takes on the losses. There are some obvious risks, but the middle managers don't have to worry to much and the big shot callers are presumably secure in their ability to influence politicians.
That was pretty much Silicon Valley Bank as I recall. Very high risk business model; turns out the plan when the bomb exploded was to change the regulations so that someone else held the risk.
SVB’s failure was due to the same trigger but opposite impact. Banks in the US have to hold a percentage of their deposits in something safe and liquid. SVB made a big bet on low interest rates, buying a lot of government debt (safest available), but when interest rates went up the value of those bonds went down ( who’d buy one that paid low interest rate when higher was on offer?).
That was pretty much Silicon Valley Bank as I recall. Very high risk business model; turns out the plan when the bomb exploded was to change the regulations so that someone else held the risk.