Banks

Opinion Headlines

  1. Bank bailout. “Another Lousy Bank Bailout.” [… too easy  at Espiritu Santo.]  8-5-14
  2. Bank bailout.  “The Lingering, Hidden Costs of the Bank Bailout.” [Why is growth so anemic?…]  7-24-14
  3. Bank bail-outs.  LTE.  “Safety Nets and Bank Bailout Policy” 8-9-14
  4. Banking in a Time of Cholera.  [Bank of America pays $18.65 billion for doing the feds a favor.] 8-22-14
  5. Banks – “Big Banks Kowtow to Beijing” 6-23-14
  6. Banks  “Getting Serious About Sanctions-Busting Banks”  6-27-14
  7. Banks  “The Citigroup ATM” [Jack Lew and Tim Geithner escape mention … bank settlement] 7-15-2014
  8. Banks.  “Bonds,  Not Bailouts, for Too Big to Fail Banks.”  By Steven  Gjerstad et. al. 8-13-14
  9. Banks.  “The Mystery of  ‘Living Will’ Rule for Banks.  By Hal Scott.  9-4-14
  10. Banks.  Dodd-Frank Goes 0 for 11.  [… giant banks are still too big to fail.] 8-7-14
  11. Banks. “The Muni Bond Lobby.” [Schumer leans on the feds to favor municipal debt in bank liquidity rules.]   9-23-14
  12. Banks. “When Central Bankers Become Central Planners.” [Macroprudential regulation is not likely to prevent asset bubbles. But credit allocation will depress growth.]   9-29-14
  13. Banks. LTE. “Don’t Throw Munis Under the Bus.” 10-7-14
  14. Banks. “Another Big Bank Handshake.” [Regulators and giant banks agree to ignore contractual rights.] 11-10-14
  15. Banks. “The Wolves of Forex.” [Foul-mouthed traders aren’t the biggest currency manipulators.] 11-13-14
  16. Banks. “Unions To Oppose Lew Nomination.” [Good questions, even if they come two years too late.] 11-20-14

  17. Banks. LTE. “Is the World Ready to Dismiss Its Central Bankers?” 11-21-14

  18. Banks. “Don’t Like an Industry? Send a Message to Its Bankers.” By William Isaac. [With Operation Choke Point, the Justice Department’s targets have included vendors of firearms and fireworks.] 11-22-14
  19. Banks. “Regulators Who Know loans Better Than Lenders.” By Richard Farley. [The federal government is making the banks the gatekeepers for leverage in corporate America.] 11-25-14
  20. Banks.   “Washington’s Quiet Bankruptcy Rewrite.” [A plan backed by big banks and their regulators gets a vote.] 11-29-14
  21. Banks. LTE. “The Deficiencies in Leveraged Loans.” 12-2-14
  22. Banks. “Europe’s Dodgy Bank Stress Tests.” By Benn Steil et.al. [The European Central Bank hailed its recent study, but market valuations of bank stocks are unsettling.] 12-9-14
  23. Banks. LTE. “We Really Should Regulate High-Risk Bank Derivatives.” 12-20-14
  24. Banks. LTE. “The Cost of Activist Central Banks.” 12-22-14
  25. Banks. “The FDIC’s Bank Holding Company Deist.” By Paul H. Kupiec et.al. [Recapitalizing a failing subsidiary bank with the assets of the parent firm is contrary to law.] 12-23-14
  26. Bankers. “Good Medicine for Bad Bankers. “ by Prof. Alan S. Blinder. [One way to keep bankers from behaving badly is to hit them in their pocketbooks with penalties that affect bonuses.] 12-24-14
  27. Banks. LTE. “Banks Subject to Intense Oversight, Inscrutable Rules.” 1-5-15
  28. Banks. “Murder in Zurich.” [The Swiss roil world markets by killing their currency peg.] 1-16-15
  29. Banks. “Stocks Get a Dollar Hit.” [Investors are whipsawed as central bankers pursue devaluation.] 1-28-15
  30. Banks. “A Smarter Way to Tax Big Banks.” By Mark J. Roe Et.al. [Make the cost of equity tax-deductible in the same way that the cost of debt is deductible.] 2-2-15Banks. LTE. “A Costly Rise of the Mighty Dollar.” 2-4-15
  31. Banks. “Regulation of Shadow Banking Takes A Dark Turn.” By Peter.J. Wallison. [A ‘chain’ of routine securities transactions, the Fed suggests, can transform a nonsystemic firm into a systemic firm.] 2-10-15
  32. Banks. “Negative Interest Rates Threaten the Banking System.” By Paul H. Kuplee.   [New rules to require more liquidity are achieving the opposite, driving it out.]   3-6-15
  33. Banks. “The Bank That Won’t Buckle.” [Nomura goes to court over the Fannie Mae mortgage fairy tale.] 3-9-15Banks. “The U.S. Needs Two More Federal Reserve Banks.” By John R. Dearie. [The people living in the Western states don’t have the voice in Washington they deserve.] 3-16-15
  34. Banks. “Washington’s Latest Bank Heist.” [No victims yet, but regulators guess that there’s bias in car loans.] 4-7-15
  35. Banks. LTE. “What Car Loans Need Is Disclosure.” 4-13-15
  36. Banks. “Roadkill in the Fed’s Race to Regulate Shadow Banking.” By Peter J. Wallison. [GE Capital saw the writing on the wall: Opportunities to innovate and compete would be smothered over time.] 4-20-15
  37. Banks. Export-Import Bank. “The Bank to Nowhere.” By Kimberley A. Strassel. 5-1-2015.
  38. Banks. “Why I’m Changing My Mind and Opposing the Ex-Im Bank.” By Rick Perry. [There are better ways to help businesses flourish. For starters, cut the sky-high U.S. corporate tax rate.] 5-6-15
  39. Banks. Headline: “Banks Near Settlement in FX Probe.”   Citigroup, Barclays, J.P. Morgan and RBS are expected to pay billions and plead guilty.’’ Wall Street Journal, 5-7-15 p. C1.
  40. Banks. “A Trillion-Dollar Tax-Exempt Cash Cow.” By Alex Sanchez. [Credit unions compete with banks but don’t have banks’ financial and regulatory burdens.]   5-18-15
  41. Banks. “Bank Bashing, the Modern Nero’s Fiddle.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Dodd-Frank and a rash of bank prosecutions have done nothing to make banks safer or more productive.] 5-23-15
  42. Banks. LTE. “Many Good Reasons for Credit Unions’ Tax Exemption.” 5-26-15
  43. Banks. LTE. “Credit Unions Fighting for Survival.” 7-24-15
  44. Banking. LTE. “A Reason for Free Checking’s Decline.” 8-5-15
  45. Banks. “Account Closed: How Bank ‘De-Risking’ Hurts Legitimate Customers.” By Lanier Sperstein and Geoffrey Sant. [In their hunt for money launderers, regulators are forcing banks to shut down branches and reject business.] 9-13-15
  46. Banks. “Willie Sutton Could Have Been A Regulator.” By Homan W. Jenkins, Jr. [A New York contretemps shows how the war on the banks has become a revenue shakedown.] 8-15-15
  47. Banks. LTE. “Fannie, Freddie and Smaller Banks.” 9-4-15
  48. Banks. “Trading Places.” by Burton G. Maikiel (Book review of “Other People’s Money” by John Kay. [Banks now put talented recruits to work devising computer trading algorithms designed to exploit the weaknesses of other algorithms.] 9-24-15
  49. EX-Im Bank. “Dawn of the Living Dead Bank.” [The GOP should at least reform the Ex-Im Bank if it can’t kill it.] 10-19-15
  50. Banks. LTE. “Reform the Ex-Im Bank and Bring It Back.” 10-26-15
  51. Banks. “The Fed’s Inconsistent Capital Rules.” [Regulators think long-term debt will prevent bank failures. Oh-oh.] 11-16-15
  52. Banks. “Fannie and Freddie’s Propaganda War.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [“…it’s tempting to see Monday’s New York Times piece, with its strange lacunae, as a classic plant (and not the first) aimed at stirring up action in Fannie and Freddie shares…”] 12-12-15
  53. . “The New Bond Market.” [Encourage record sales of bonds, while telling banks not to buy them.] 12-15-15
  54. Banks. “Fannie and Freddie Forever.” [The mortgage giants are once again claiming their paper has no risk for taxpayers. Yeah, right.] 12-31-15
  55. Banks. LTE, “Toxic Twins’ Potentially Poisonous New Brew.” [Fannie and Freddie] 1-6-16
  56. Banks. LTE. “Watching Whales at World’s Central Banks.” 1-8-16
  57. Banks. “Warren’s Criminal Complaint.” [She wants bankers to go to jail even if they didn’t intend to break the law.] 2-6-16
  58. Banks. “Time for a Central Bankers Strike.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Deutsche Bank’s travails show we have bigger problems than too big to fail.] 2-17-16
  59. Banks. “Fannie and Freddie and the 10% Moment.” By Alex J. Pollock. [They can keep their profits once they stop freeloading off the taxpayers.] 3-17-16
  60. Banks. “GE Attempts a Great Escape.” [Will banking regulators allow the company to flee their jurisdiction?] 4-1-2016
  61. Banks. “Focusing on Bank Size, Missing the Real Problem.” By Randal K. Quaries and Lawrence Goodman.” [Populist ‘too big to fail’ attacks don’t address the real financial risk: not enough stable deposits.] 4-1-16
  62. Banks. “Large Banks and Small Banks Are Allies, Not Enemies. By Jamie Dimon. [Mr. Dimon is chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase.] 4-6-16
  63. Banks. LTE. “The Big Banks are More Equal Than Others.”  4-14-16
  64. “The Great Recession Blame Game.” By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon. [Banks took the heat, but it was Washington that propped up subprime debt and then stymied recovery.] 4-16-16
  65. Banks. “Big Banks Aren’t the Problem.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [The Richmond Fed says 61% of debts are guaranteed by government.] 4-20-16
  66. Banks. “The Uberization of Banking.” (The Weekend Interview with Mike Dabney by Andy ZKessler.) [The fintech entrepreneur behind SoFi wants to move lending away from the big banks and onto your smartphone.] 5-1-16
  67. Banks. “Washington’s Arbitration Deception.” [Now the consumer bureau is ignoring its own research.] 5-18-16
  68. Banks. LTE. “Government Drives Banks From Mortgages.” 5-19-16
  69. Banks. “The Bank Fraud That Wasn’t.” [A federal appeals court overturns a politicized mortgage case.] 5-25-16
  70. Banks. “Fannie, Freddie and an Outbreak of Amnesia.” By Douglas Holtz-Eakin. [The growing ‘recap and release’ movement is a bad idea that could lead to another financial disaster.] 5-25-16
  71. Banks. LTE.  “Countrywide Really Wasn’t a Subprime Lender at All.”  6-3-16 (See May 25, banks, here.)
  72. Banks. LTE.  “Amnesia?  We Remember the Lack of a Cushion.” 6-7-16  (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)
  73. Banks. “Publish the Secret Rules for Banks’ Living Wills.”  By Hal Scott.  [Regulators aren’t satisfied with the wills of five big firms – but they refuse to say what the criteria are.]  6-10-16
  74. Banks. “Bring Back Glass-Steagall?  No thanks.”  By Wm. M. Isaac and Richard M. Kovacevich.  [Some people mistakenly believe that investment banking is so  risky that it should be separated from commercial banking.]  8-9-16
  75. Banks. LTE.  “Requirements Make Risk-Based Capital Safe.”  8-18-16  (See Economy #367 , here, 8-12-16)
  76. Banks. “Look Who’s Getting That Bank Settlement Cash.” By Andy Koenig. [Tens of millions of dollars disguised as ‘consumer relief” are going to liberal political groups.] 8-29-16
  77. Banks. “Well Fargo’s Incentives Go Awry.”  By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Employees, not the bank, benefited from creating fake customer accounts.]  9-21-16
  78. Banks. “Whipping Wells Fargo.”  [The bank blundered, and the politicians will make it pay.]  9-21-16
  79. Banks. “Central Bankers at Wit’s End.”  [At the Fed and in Japan, monetary policy has lost its mojo.]  9-22-16
  80. Banks. “The Wells Fargo Standard.”  [Imagine if the Treasury Secretary had to live by new rules for banks.]  9-24-16
  81. Banks. LTE.  “Parsing the Great Wells Fargo Bank Robbery.”  9-27-16
  82. Banks. “Who’s the Systemic Risk Now?”  [Washington’s assault on Deutsche Bank imperils Europe’s economy.]  9-29-16
  83. Banks. LTE.  “Management Pressured Wells Fargo Workers.”  9-30-16
  84. Banks. “Obama’s Political Bank Run.”  [The U.S. stages an election robbery and nearly triggers a panic.]  9-30-16
  85. Banks. LTE.  “Political Risk Once Meant Banana Republics.”   10-8-16
  86. Banks. LTE.  “The Wells Fargo Situation:  Different From Citigroup’s”  10-12-16
  87. Banks. “A Trans-Atlantic Revolt Against Central Bankers.”  By Judy Shelton.  [Conservative leaders in the U.S. and Britain are standing up for those left behind by ultralow rates.]  10-12-16
  88. Banks. “Wells Fargo’s Political Sacrifice.”  [CEO John Stumpt is offered up to the Beltway gods.]  10-13-16
  89. Banks. LTE.  “Banks Use of Leverage and Derivatives Need Regulation.”  10-15-16
  90. Banks. “Elizabeth Warren Claims a Scalp.”  By Homan W. Jenkins, Jr  10-15-16  (Wells Fargo)
  91. Banks. LTE.  “Shed No Tears for Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf.”  10-19-16
  92. Banks. LTE.  “The Central Bankers’ Halo Is Seriously Askew.”  10-21-16
  93. Banks. “Barack’s Last Bank Bash.”  [Former villains are now victims in a final round of official larceny.]  12-27-16
  94. Banks. “Congress Can’t Take Banks’ Money and Run.” By Rob Nichols and Roy Whitehead. [Withholding Fed stock dividends violates the Fifth Amendment. 2-10-17
  95. Banks. “Make big Banks Put 20% Down – Just Like Home Buyers Do.” By Neel Kashkari. [Financial CEOs say capital requirements are already too high, but the facts suggest otherwise.] 2-15-17
  96. Banks. Dodd-Frank. “A Plan to Give Community Banks Relief from Dodd-Frank.” By John Kennedy. [Smaller institutions didn’t cause the financial crisis, but are drowning in compliance costs.] 4-24-17
  97. Banks. “A Better Idea for Bankrupt Big Banks.”  By Stephen E. Hessler.  [“…The Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act (FIBA) …would amend the Bankruptcy code to streamline Chapter 11 cases of ‘systemically important financial institutions’…”]  4-25-17
  98. Banks. “The Shattered Arguments for a New Glass-Steagall.”  By William M. Isaac and Richard M. Kovacevich.  [Investment banking isn’t risky.  What’s dangerous is creating stand-alone firms that can’t diversify.]  4-26-17
  99. Dodd Frank.  “Durbin’s Debit-Card Price Controls Hit the Poor Hardest.”  By Todd J. Zywicki and Julian  Morris.  [Limits on fees lead banks to charge the poor more for other services – or to stop offering them at all.]  5-2-17
  100. Banks. “Central Banks and the New Abnormal.”  [Markets fret as they forget what normal policy looks like.]  6-30-17
  101. Banks. “A Trump Disappointment for Manufacturers.”  By Jay Timmons.  [Does Scott Garrett want to lead the Ex-Im Bank or kill it?]  7-12-17
  102. Banks. “The Morgan Whale That Got Away.”  [Bankers haven’t gone to jail because they haven’t committed crimes.]  8-7-17
  103. Banks. “J.P. Morgan’s Hate List.” By Kimberley a. Strassel. [What is its gift to the Southern Poverty Law Center telling bank customers?] 8-25-17
  104. Banks. “Why Would Anyone Sane Be a Bank Director?”  by Thomas P. Vartanian.  [They’re asked to do too much, and then they get sued for failing to do the impossible.]  8-29-17
  105. Banks. “Regulators Can help American Workers Get the Credit They Deserve.”  By Wm. M. Isaac and Ken Rees.  [Nonprime lending isn’t as risky as it’s made out to be, and fintech firms can help traditional banks.]  10-27-17
  106. Banks.  “The Markets Point Toward Economic Strength.” By Jason De Sena Trennert.  [Higher long-term interest rates suggest central banks may finally be curtailing their outsize influence.] 2-6-18
  107. Banks. “Wells Fargo’s Political Penalty.” [Janet Yellen offers a Fed parting gift to Elizabeth Warren.] 2-7-18
  108. Banks. “Congress Flirts With Disaster on Bank Leverage Ratios.” By Sheila Bair. [Legislators who want to weaken capital standards must have forgotten the lessons of the 2008 crisis.] 2-13-18
  109. “Warren Democrats for Wall Street.” [A modest Senate reform would help regional and small banks compete.] 3-6-18
  110. Banks. “Big Bank Custody Fight.” [A Senate bill includes a sneaky reduction in capital rules.] 3-8-18
  111. Banks. “The Art of a Banking Compromise.” [ On fixing Dodd-Frank, the House shouldn’t be a potted plant.] 3-17-18
  112. Banks. “Barclays Foils Bank Heist.” [The British bank saves $3 billion by fighting a late Obama hit.] [A judicial victory shows a political opening in the ill-governed state.] 3-30-18
  113. Banks. “Relaxing Bank Capital Requirements Would Risk Another Crisis.” By Thomas M. Hoenig and Sheila C. Bair. [The Fed’s proposal would rely on ‘modeled risk’ to gauge stability. It failed to predict the 2008 collapse.] 4-27-18
  114. Banks.  “A Better Alternative to Payday Loans.”  By Todd h. Baker and Snigdha Kumar.  [Using a ‘Salary link,’ employers can help low-income workers get access to credit.]  5-14-18
  115. Banks. “The Art of Banking Deal.” [Congress eases the Dodd-Frank pain on non-giant banks.] 5-24-18
  116. Banks. “Monetary Mavericks.” (Bookshelf by Joseph C. Sternberg.) “Unelected Power” by Paul Tucker. [The question is not whether recent interventions by central banks were effective, but whether they were legitimate.] 6-28-18
  117. Banks.  “When Banks Bailed Out the Government.”  By James Freeman and Vern McKinley.  [Citigroup is ‘too big to fail.’  Its predecessor was once responsible enough to weather a panic.]  8-4-18
  118. Banks.  “Credit Unions Shouldn’t Get a Free Ride.”  By Alex Sanchez.  [Why is a $90 billion financial institution exempt from taxes?]  8-15-16 (?)
  119. Banks.  “Bailouts Shouldn’t Be Only for Banks.”  By Glenn Hubbard.  [The government’s failure to help homeowners after the 2008 crisis fueled populist anger at finance.]  9-14-18
  120. Banks.  “Trump’s Obama-Style Bank Heist.”  [Justice misuses a 1989 law to become a shadow banking regulator.]  11-19-18
  121. Banks.  “Mission Impossible: World Bank.”  [David Malpass is an excellent choice for a miserable job.]  2-6-19
  122. Banks.  “House Democrats Politicize Banking.”  By Megan Keller.  [JPMorgan and Wells Fargo cater to their demands and cut off relationships with disfavored clients.]  3-18-19
  123. Banks.  “Wells Fargo:  Help Wanted.”  [In which we attempt to help the bank attract a new CEO.]  6-13-19
  124. Banks. “Maybe We’re All Gold Bugs Now. By Joseph C. Sternberg. [Standard monetary wisdom on exchange rate doesn’t quite work in the increasingly global system.] 8-2-19
  125. Bankers. “The IMF Needs an Upgrade.” [George Osborne or Mark Carney could be helpful in a global downturn.] 8-24-19
  126. Banks. “The Plot to Politicize Banking.” By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon. [Liberal lawmakers and activists want banks to lend to favored groups and deny the ‘undesirables.’] 1-15-20
  127. Banks.  “Give Relief to Small Businesses, Not Big Banks.” By Ali Wambold. [More money is crucial, but so are new rules to ensure that it helps the most vulnerable employees.] 4-14-20
  128. Banks.  “’Main Street’ Program Is Too Stingy to Banks and Borrowers.”  By Glenn Hubbard and Hal Scott.  [Designed to save midsize businesses, it will work only with greater backing and more generous terms.]     7-21-20
  129. Banks.  “Fintech Can Come Out of the Shadows.”  By Brian P. Brooks and Charles W. Calomiris.  [Firms that make loans and process payments should be chartered and regulated as national banks.]   9-10-20
  130. Banks.  “Payday Lenders, Gun Salesmen – and Taking Politics Out of Banking.” By Brian P. Brooks and Charles W. Calomiris.  [A new rule aims to make sure all legal businesses can get loans,  including unpopular ones.]   11-21-20
  131. Banks.  “Trump’s Fair Banking Rule.”  [Pushing back against the left’s red-lining of unpopular industries.]  12-1-20
  132. Banks.  “A Reckoning Looms for Commercial Real Estate – and Its Lenders.”  By Brian Graham.  [The composition of their portfolios makes small community banks especially vulnerable.]   12-15-20
  133. Banks.  “Fed Policy Is Smothering Privat Lending.”  by Judy Shelton. [Banks, leery of making risky loans in the real Banks. , do business with the central bank instead.]   3-9-21
  134. Banks.  “Comptroller of the Banks. .”  [Biden’s nominee to regulate banks really, really hates …banks.]   9-30-21
  135. Banks.  “As Central Banks Taper, Investors Should Take Cover.”  By Dimitris Valatsas.  [Previously, the European Central Bank and the Fed offset each other’s impact.  No such Luck this time.]   10-7-21
  136. Banks.  “A Banking Regulator Who Hates Banks.”  [The left wants everyone to ignore what Saule Omarova believes.]   10-25-21
  137. Banks.  “The Warren-Biden Bank Heist.”  [A coup at the FDIC breaks norms and signals more political control of finance.]  1-3-22
  138. Banks.  “The Banker and Bailey Circus.”  [Britain’s financial turmoil is part of the inevitable monetary correction.]   9-29-22
  139. Banks.  “The Not-So-Invisible Hand:  Central Banks.”  By Judy Shelton.  [Since when do unelected monetary officials have the authority to tell political leaders what to do?]  10-12-22
  140. Banks.  “And Now for a Little Bank Panic.” [After the credit mania, the monetary reckoning takes two casualties.]   3-11-23
  141. Banks.  “Who Killed Silicon Valley Bank?”  by Andy Kessler.  [Apparently no on e at the firm perceived any risk from the Fed raising interest rates.]   3-13-23
  142. Banks.  “The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout.”  [The bill for bad policy comes due, but there’s risk in a second bank rescue in 15 years.]   (“…You can’t run the most reckless monetary and fiscal experiment in history without the bill eventually coming due…”)  3-13-23
  143. Banks.  “SVB Doesn’t Deserve a Taxpayer Bailout.”  By Vivek Ramaswamy.  [Ignore Silicon Valley fearmongering about bank runs.  This is a simple case of bad risk management.]   3-13-23
  144. Banks.  “Biden’s Bank Bailout Whoppers.”  [The President offers assurances that markets don’t believe.]   3-14-23
  145. Banks.  “The Education of Barney Frank.   [The Dodd-Frank author has a Signature Bank failure moment.]   3-14-23
  146. Banks.  “Deposit Insurance Encourages Bank Failures.”  By Charles W. Calomairis.  [Informed customers used to monitor banks’ risk management.  Now they skirt the $250,000 limit.]   3-14-23
  147. Banks.  “The Tide Goes Out, and Silicon Valley Bank Already Drowned.”  By Gerard Baker.  [Imprudent bankers weren’t the only ones who believed the financial waves would never recede.]   3-14-23
  148. Banks.  “Joe Biden’s $19 Trillion Monday.”  By Holman W. Jenkins., Jr.  [His latest bank bailout is a solution for him now and a problem for us later.]   3-15-23
  149. Banks.  “How Silicon Valley Bank Avoided Oversight.”  By Wm. A. Galston.  [Its CEO lobbied for a loosening of Dodd-Frank reforms, risking financial stability.]  3-15-23
  150. Banks.  “About Those ‘Safe’ SVB Treasurys.”  [Any asset can blow up a bank if monetary policy is bad enough.]  3-15-23
  151. Banks.  “A Eulogy for Silicon Valley Bank.”  By Ken Wilcox. [Its lending was vitally important to America – and the loans aren’t what got it into trouble.]   3-15-23
  152. Banks.  “Banking Is Always a Risky Business.”  By Nathan Myhrvold.  [Most depositor money is at work someplace else, so the possibility of a run is ever present.]   3-15-23
  153. Banks.  “Was SVB a Twitter Panic?”  by Daniel Henninger.  [The madness of crowds is becoming everyday life in the 21st century.]   3-16-23
  154. Banks.  “The Panic Spreads to Credit Suisse.”  [The financial trouble is exposing many myths of the mania years.]   3-16-23
  155. Banks.  “Policy Lessons From the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse.”  By Alan S. Blinder. [We’ve gone too far with deregulation and ‘too big to fail,’ and the Fed can pause its rate hikes.]   (Blinder was an adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry during their respective presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004)  3-16-23
  156. Banks.  “Did ESG Help Sink SVB?”  by Kimberley A. Strassel.  [One entrepreneur says the bank was offering ‘basically subprime business loans.’]   3-17-23
  157. Banks.  How SVB ‘Profited’ From Interest-Rate Risk.”  By William L. Silber.  [An accounting rule created an incentive for the collapse.]   3-17-23
  158. Banks.  “While Yellen Assures, Banks Run.”  [The Treasury Secretary’s claims are belied by financial reality.]   3-17-23
  159. Banks.  “America Needs Its Small Banks.”  By Kevin R. Greene and John Michaelson.  [Europe style consolidation would make it much harder for entrepreneurs and farms to get credit.]  3-17-23
  160. Banks.  “Fed Action Could Have Prevented SVB’s Collapse.”  By Hal Scott.  [A central function of the central bank is to act as the lender of last resort.  Why did it fail to do so?]   3-17-23
  161. Banks.  “Another Banking Crisis Was Predictable.”  (The Weekend Interview with Thomas M. Hoenig by Mary Anastasia O’Grady.)  [The original sin was monetary policy, but regulators failed to heed the warning signs of a disaster in the making.]   3-18-23
  162. Banks.  “And, Now, a Credit Suisse Bailout.”  3-20-23
  163. Banks.  “Careless Supervision Sank SVB.”  By Lawrence B. Lindsey.  [How did California, the FDIC and the Fed all fail to pick up what now seem like obvious red flags?]  3-20-23
  164. Banks.  “Want to Prevent SVB-Style Collapses?  Scrap Dodd-Frank.”  By Michael Faulkender and Tyler Goodspeed.  [Stress tests have made the banking system less varied and resilient, particularly to regulatory errors.]   3-21-23
  165. Banks.  “The Joe Biden Banking Crisis.”  By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.  [FDR and Obama inherited their meltdowns.  Biden’s was self-made.]   3-22-23
  166. Banks.  “The End of Market discipline for Banks.”  [Yellen essentially says all deposits are insured. From now on, moral hazard rules.]  3-22-23
  167. Banks.  “Life’s Certainties:  Death, Taxes and Bailouts.”  By Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick.  [The Fed stuck to its playbook with Silicon Valley Bank.  That may guarantee the next crisis.]   3-22-23
  168. Banks.  “Banks Aren’t Busting the Economy, Politics Is Busting Banks.”  By Joseph C. Sternberg.  [Antigrowth policies on Main Street mean Wall Street can’t earn money the old-fashioned way.]   3-24-23
  169. Banks.  “A Climate for Failed Bank Regulation.”  [Did the San Francisco Fed put political causes above financial risks?”   3-27-23
  170. Banks.  “The FDIC’s Sweetheart Bank Deal.”  [First Citizens scores a great deal, while the deposit Insurance fund takes a $20 billion hit.]   3-28-23
  171. Banks.  “What congress Should Ask Regulators in SVB’s Aftermath.”  [Some lawmakers blame a bipartisan 2018 reform law.  That’s so nonsensical, it isn’t even wrong.]   3-28-23
  172. Banks.  “A Proven Way to Avid Moral Hazard.”  By Wm.  M. Isaac.  [In the ‘80s, the FDIC paid off uninsured depositors at 80%]   3-29-23
  173. Banks.  “The Fed Passes the Buck on Banks.”  [Michael Barr’s excuses for regulatory failure are simply unbelievable.]   3-29-23
  174. Banks.  “In Today’s Banking Crisis, Echoes of the ‘80s.”3-29-23  by Charles W. Calamiris and Phil Gramm.  [Losses at SVB, signature and other banks reflect the risk from borrowing short and lending long.]   3-29-23
  175. Banks.  “Yellen Blames Everybody Else.”   [Regulation failed, but the secretary wants more regulation.]   4-3-23
  176. Banks.  “Why FDR Limited FDIC Coverage.” By Aaron Klein.  [The objective was to protect depositors, not rich people and big companies.]  4-10-23
  177. Banks.  “How the FDIC Rigged the SVB Auction.”   4-19-23
  178. Banks.  “The Easy-Money Lesson of First Republic.”   4-26-23
  179. Banks.  “Jamie Dimon Rides to Biden’s Rescue.”  [The JPMorgan CEO cuts a sweet deal to take over First Republic Bank.]   5-2-23
  180. Banks.  “ObamaCare and Zombie Banks.”  by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.  [he Affordable Care Act depleted the federal government’s capacity for reform.]   5-3-23
  181. Banks.  “Biden’s Big Bank Contradiction.”  [Regulators stymie a midsize bank merger but help JPMorgan get bigger.]  5-5-23
  182. Banks.  “The FDIC Guarantees Instability.”  By Dan Katz and Stephen Miran.  [The ‘system-wide’ deposit backing only kicks in once a bank fails, so potential buyers wait for the subsidy.]   5-11-23
  183. Banks.  “SVB’s Greg Becker Tells His Story.”  5-17-23
  184. Banks.  “Silicon Valley Bank’s Failure Is a Federal Reserve ‘Success.’”  By Joseph C. Sternberg.  [Forward guidance worked all too well by encouraging SVB to pretend rising inflation was ‘transitory.’]   5-19-23
  185. Banks.  “Regulators May Sink America’s Banks.”  By Jeb Hensarling and Michael Solon.  [A credit-tightening increase on capital standard’ won’t help the American economy.]   6-23-23
  186. Banks.  “Punishing Banks for Regulatory Failure.”  [Regulators want to saddle midsize banks with new capital rules.]   8-10-23
  187. Banks.  “The New Bank Bailout.”  By Paul H. Kupiec and Alex J. Pollock.  [Taxpayers are covering Federal Reserve losses, for which member banks are supposed to be liable.]   9-1-23
  188. Banks.  “A New York Rent-Control Bank Panic.”  [Investors fret about NYCB’s multi-family housing portfolio.]   2-12-24
  189. Banks.  “Biden Plays Whack-a-Bank.”  [The ‘junk fee’ campaign will merely shift costs somewhere else.]   3-11-24
  190. Banks.  “Governed by Banks.”  (Bookshelf by James Grant.)  “Balance of Power” by Eric Monnet.  [Should central banks lend a hand with the management of climate change and aim to keep the welfare state fully financed?]   4-23-24

 

 

 

 

 

Issue Headlines

Banks. News. “Banks Near Swaps Suit Pact.” Wall Street Journal, 9-12-15, p. B1. [Firms to pay $1.87 billion to plaintiffs who accused them of rigging credit-derivatives market.]

Banks. “Global Regulators Seek to Prevent ‘Too Big to Fail.’” Wall Street Journal 11-9-15 p. C6

Banks. “Inside Enforcers Shake Up Bank Culture.  Sub:  Post crisis regulation brings wave of compliance hiring; no fraternizing.”  Wall Street Journal.  By Kirsten Grind and Emily Glazer.     5-31-16  P. A1

Banks. “The Existential Crisis That’s Stalking Banks.”  By Dennis K. Berman. Wall Street Journal.  5-31-16 p. C1

Banks. “Global Financial Institutions Are in Retreat.”  By Justin Baer and Max Colchester. Wall Street Journal.  5-31-16 p. C1  [The issue of whether banks are too big is a recurring topic on the campaign trail.]

Banks. “Inside Enforcers Shake Up Bank Culture.  Sub:  Post crisis regulation brings wave of compliance hiring; no fraternizing.”   Wall Street Journal.  By Kirsten Grind and Emily Glazer.  5-31-16  P. A1

Banks. “The Existential Crisis That’s Stalking Banks.”  By Dennis K. Berman. Wall Street Journal.  5-31-16 p. C1

Banks. “Global Financial Institutions Are in Retreat.”  By Justin Baer and Max Colchester. Wall Street Journal.  5-31-16 p. C1  [The issue of whether banks are too big is a recurring topic on the campaign trail.]

Banks. “Central Bank Tools Losing Their Edge.” Wall Street Journal.  P. A1,  9-22-16

Campaign Consideration

Talking Points

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