April 1, 2023 First, it was the crypto-focused Silvergate Bank. Then it was Silicon Valley Bank. And immediately after, Signature Bank. Silvergate and Signature could be dismissed because, well, crypto. But Silicon Valley Bank is something entirely else. It was older, and much larger. And a mainstay of high-tech, venture-funded startups for many decades. Then […]
As the Federal Reserve has hiked rates from 0% to over 4.75%, the average interest rate on bank deposits has remained low, around the FDIC’s national average for savings accounts of 0.37%. This has led many to ask the simple question. Why aren’t banks raising the interest rate on deposits? The Hotel California Banking System […]
Last week, we had this to say about the implications of SVB’s collapse… Everyone in the market has to think about an unpleasant reality and come to grips with it. They have to consider the risks of things that previously they may have thought absolutely safe. Such as bank deposits, and Treasury bonds (and government-guaranteed […]
You can listen to an audio summary of this article below. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed and was then seized by the California Department of Financial Protection on Friday, March 10. This came after a frenetic two days, when the bank announced a big loss, tried to raise capital, and then faced an accelerating run-on-the-bank. […]
I have written a number of pieces on fractional reserve banking and duration mismatch. I have argued that the former is perfectly fine, both morally and economically, but the latter is not fine. I have dissected the arguments made against fractional reserve banking, and pointed out that it is nothing more than a bank lending […]
