How deep is the rot in America’s banking industry?
Silicon Valley Bank may be the start of something grimmer
Banking is a confidence trick. Financial history is littered with runs, for the straightforward reason that no bank can survive if enough depositors want to be repaid at the same time. The trick, therefore, is to ensure that customers never have cause to whisk away their cash. It is one that bosses at Silicon Valley Bank (svb), formerly America’s 16th-largest lender, failed to perform at a crucial moment.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The prop-up job”
Finance & economics March 18th 2023
- How deep is the rot in America’s banking industry?
- For markets Silicon Valley Bank’s demise signals a painful new phase
- The search for Silicon Valley Bank-style portfolios
- What the loss of Silicon Valley Bank means for Silicon Valley
- Credit Suisse faces share-price turbulence, as fear sweeps the market
- Is the global investment boom turning to bust?
- The Fed smothers capitalism in an attempt to save it
From the March 18th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance & economics
China meets its official growth target. Not everyone is convinced
For one thing, 2024 saw the second-weakest rise in nominal GDP since the 1970s
Ethiopia gets a stockmarket. Now it just needs some firms to list
The country is no longer the most populous without a bourse
Are big cities overrated?
New economic research suggests so
Why catastrophe bonds are failing to cover disaster damage
The innovative form of insurance is reaching its limits
“The Traitors”, a reality TV show, offers a useful economics lesson
It is a finite, sequential, incomplete information game
Will Donald Trump unleash Wall Street?
Bankers have plenty of reason to be hopeful