It’s also been funny seeing managers try to rebrand tech debt with other business speak like “tech health”. Debt shouldn’t be a bad thing but one that’s anticipated and respected.
There's also a distinction between "we made intentional decisions that we need to fix up now" and "We (or people before us) made unintentional decisions and it is in such a bad state that it endangers the health of the business."
Technical debt in your solution is fine. Running a Ponzi scheme in your solution isn't.
Loan consolidation is quite normal in the UK
Because otherwise, what would stop you taking on a loan for X, then paying it off after a while by taking on the same amount from another bank?
Nothing. That's why lenders do credit checks and due diligence.
https://www.moneycrashers.com/responsible-use-0-balance-tran...
A bank's primary business is managing risk. And borrowing from Peter to pay Paul (having previously borrowed from Paul) is a significantly different risk profile than borrowing for investment or even present consumption.
Erm, it very much isn't illegal. At least not in most places.
Taking on fresh debt to pay off other debt is the very definition of a consolidation loan which is perfectly legal in most, possibly all, jurisdictions.
There are limits of course, like not using a loan to pay the deposit on a mortgage, or simply not lending beyond defined means, but these are set by the bank to manage their own exposure to risk rather than limits set by law. Such limits are merely encouraged by law, via regulatory limits on standing capital compared to debt held and so forth.