Why Top Washington Officials Chose to Rescue SVB Depositors

For more than a decade after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Washington’s regulatory watchdogs sought to ensure that they would never again face fraught weekend deliberations about propping up the financial system from a bank failure. 

Last weekend, they did. 

For the nation’s top economic officials—Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg and White House National Economic Council director Lael Brainard —the challenge boiled down to a single decision: 

whether to employ a federal law allowing a “systemic risk exception” permitting the FDIC to guarantee deposits beyond the $250,000 limit per customer.

 WSJ 16 mars 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-top-washington-officials-agreed-to-a-bank-rescue-ef489db8

 

Silicon Valley Bank’s Distress Wasn’t Reflected in Credit Ratings

Ratings firms gave high marks to regional banks shortly before failures

WSJ 17 March 2023

Silicon Valley Bank’s Distress Wasn’t Reflected in Credit Ratings - WSJ

Ten years after Lehman collapse few lessons have been heeded

Rating agencies still wield huge influence and investment executives remain unaccountable

To be clear, nobody expects economic models to predict crises, future prices and recessions with total accuracy. But at least they should be able to explain the basic functioning of the economy.

Arturo Cifuentes FT 22 August 2018

About "The Great Recession" The Subprime Credit Crunch at IntCom (internetional.se)