Financial Regulation

The March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) — aside from foregrounding the hypocrisy of neoliberal pundits and libertarian venture capitalists alike — spotlighted the instability of the cryptocurrency industry’s most ostensibly stable offering. Hidden within the uncertainty of SVB’s fate following a $42 billion withdrawal frenzy was a similar crisis of confidence for Circle Internet Financial and its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC).

One glaring blind spot does jump out: the complete absence of the names ‘Quarles,’ ‘Barr,’ ‘Powell,’ or any other actual member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from the main text of the report.”

The Fed report is being written by Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, whose own failures ought to be among the report’s focuses.

Rolling back Trump’s framework just means that FSOC is allowing itself to see the financial system through a realistic lens.

It’s high time that members of the press who regularly turn to Summers for his views on the economy begin questioning him on how he is able to adequately perform his multiple advisory roles and moreover, why there is a pattern of illegality at firms he advises. Or they could simply toss him to the aether, and platform non-conflicted experts instead.

One of the flashing-red warning signs about SVB’s bad balance sheet was the huge cash advances it was taking out of the FHLBank system.

By doing so, Jiko became one of the, if not the, first fintech company to buy a national bank.

Despite years of our best advice, and indeed the better judgments of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other progressives in Congress, government watchdogs like Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and others, nearly one year ago President Joe Biden disappointed his responsibility to the public and to his own economic agenda by renominating Donald Trump’s hand picked head of the Fed: Jerome Powell. Biden bafflingly stuck by Powell despite his years of betraying labor unions, environmental groups and frontline communities, and the middle class. As a result, broad coalitions of folks concerned about the climate crisis, about the long term safety and stability of our financial system, about attacks on labor and the working class, about housing insecurity and the long term impacts of the pandemic, mobilized against Powell’s renomination because his storied track record of, well, making each of these things (and more!) worse.

When bankers blow their businesses up, it’s no-questions-asked bailout time. When student borrowers need relief, not so much.

Short-seller Hindenburg Research says the payments mogul Block has inflated user metrics, ignored widespread criminal transactions on its platforms, and evaded regulations.

The SVB collapse rubs in our collective faces the fact that the financiers with great influence over our political economy are, by and large, a pack of greedy idiots.