Tag Archive for: duration mismatch

What Is Undermining the Banks? 

April Fools

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 […]

Why Can’t Banks Raise Their Rates on Deposits?

Why Can’t Banks Raise Their Rates on Deposits?

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  […]

Did the Fed just Pivot?

Did the Fed just Pivot

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 […]

What Caused the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank?

The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

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. […]

Sam Bankman-Fried FTX’ed Up

Sam Bankman-Fried FTX’ed Up

You can listen to the audio version of this article here. Last week the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which was recently valued at $32 billion, imploded. While the tragedy continues to play out, let’s summarize what has happened so far: FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange, co-founded by Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried. FTX enables customers to make leveraged […]

How to Build and Destroy a Pension Fund System in 22 Easy Steps

Step 18

How to Destroy a Pension Fund in 22 Easy Steps CEO of Monetary Metals Keith Weiner gave a talk at the New Orleans Investment Conference on how to build and destroy a pension fund system in 22 easy steps. If you’d like to see an excellent case study of these steps in action, see the […]

Why Duration Mismatch Will Always Fail

Duration Mismatch

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 […]

Falling Interest Rates Destroy Capital

Falling Interest Rate

I have written other pieces on the topic of fractional reserve banking and duration mismatch, which is when someone borrows short-term money to lend long-term and how falling interest rates actually encourage duration mismatch. Falling interest rates are a feature of our current monetary regime, so central that any look at a graph of 10-year […]

Falling Interest Rates and Duration Mismatch

Falling Interest Rates and Duration Mismatch

Since 1982, US Treasurys have been in a bull market. This is Exhibit A: the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond (the yield and the market price of the bond are inversely related, like a teeter-totter). This statement should not be controversial. But outside Austrian circles, most people don’t understand that this structural decline is […]

Fractional Reserve Is Not the Problem

In the United States, there are once again TV commercials advertising Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) for residential real estate.  Today, I saw one from Quicken Loans promoted with the tagline “why pay more in interest charges now just to know what rate you will have in 2018?” (they are offering a 7-year “teaser” rate and […]