Yesterday, as I was driving down to Rancho Mirage, I got a call from my bank telling me I was overdrawn. The bank is called First Credit Bank. It is a small entity, and I have been a depositor since…
Nobody likes paying fees. A fee, however, is a transparent way to reflect the price of something. In a market economy, prices convey vital information that consumers and producers use to make good decisions. A rise in the price of…
Amidst all the ongoing chaos on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is working to deliver a boon to the cannabis industry with the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFER) Banking Act. Predictably, some Republicans have joined him under the…
Perfect storms occur in batches. It’s never a single event, a single wave. Bank executives, like ship captains, earn their keep during times of upheaval. The good ones anticipate events, examine cause and effect, assess risk, and chart the best…
Moral hazard occurs when an agreement that people make to act in concert for their mutual benefit results in an incentive for one of them to act immorally. The classic case is insurance. When an insurance company contracts with a…
Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon By William D. Cohan (Portfolio, 816 pages, $40) In Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of An American Icon, William D. Cohan masterfully chronicles the creation, ascent, and destruction of…
Two large regional banks failed within a period of only two days, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10, and Signature Bank on March 12. Both banks had a combined aggregate asset size of $319 billion as of Dec. 31,…
What do Willie Sutton and Democrats have in common? One can rob a bank by wearing the Hamburglar’s mask, handing over Virgil Starkwell’s note, and waving around Evelle Snoats’s firearm. Alternatively, one can simply join the bank’s board and direct…
RVIVR publisher Scott McKay and American Spectator publisher Melissa Mackenzie discuss the causes of the banking crisis, delve into the woke and broke cycle, examine young leftists’ mental illnesses, and then discuss cures. Father Leo Patalinghug joins The Spectacle to…
The board of SVB, the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, included as many people who grieved over Donald Trump’s 2016 victory at a Shinto shrine as investment bankers. It included as many former Obama administration officials as investment bankers….