The rise of ATMs: How companies quietly sell stock for cash

In finance, there are all sorts of arcane acronyms, many of which float below the radar screen of normal life until all of a sudden they’re important and interesting. Almost no one had heard of an SPE until Enron; no one had heard of a CDO or an MBS until the financial crisis. On a less pejorative note, there was a time when no one had heard of an ETF either. They can turn out to be wonderful or ugly — which might explain why acronyms I haven’t heard cause my ears to perk up.