On March 10, 2023 California Regulator, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)  “due to the bank losing over 60% of its value after the company disclosed major losses from security sales” due to rising interest rates, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was appointed the receiver.  This is the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. [4, 6]

SVB, the 17th largest US bank, holds $173 billion of deposits, FDIC insures up to $250,000 per depositor, but 90% of depositors had more than this figure held in the bank. The CEO allegedly sold $3.5 million in stocks in the preceeding 2 weeks.

Silicon valley start-up companies use SVB – it is said that if the government doesn’t “bail out” the bank,  an “extinction level event” for start-up’s as 10 years of innovation could be lost. Big Tech invests elsewhere. [1, 2, 3, 5]

The Treasury Department stepped in on Sunday March 12, 2023 “to guarantee that all customers of the failed Silicon Valley Bank would have access to their full deposits on Monday”, Biden “assured” no public bail out, that it would come “from the fee’s that the banks deposit into the insurance fund” and also stated the SVB bank management would be fired.  Venture Capitalists sponsor 99+% of depositors, who could foot their bill…and not the tax payer [13]

  • Trading halted on 30 banks when the markets opened. [7, 12]
  • Federal reserve to review itself for “regulatory failure”. [8]
  • Biden blames Trump for banks failure!
  • Late Sunday March 12, 2023 regulators also shut down Signature Bank following $10 billion in deposits withdrawn. [9, 10, 11] A shady bank!
  • SVB had only one qualified board member, the rest were Dem “mega-donors”, and for 9 mths prior to collapse, now head of “risk management”. [13]
  • SVB had a debt-to-equity ratio of 185:1, and in Q4 2020 was ‘technically insolvent‘.
  • It was bailed out [14]

“This is the beginning of a deflationary cycle. SVB just happens to be the headline.  Fed response will cause relief near term but over time this will just continue to get worse…we are in a recession that will continue to get worse.” stated Ed Dowd