That was quite a weekend. The implosion of Silicon Valley Bank set off panic about the fate of tens of billions worth of deposits and, by Saturday morning, it looked like the broader U.S. financial system could be on fire. Then on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other top regulators announced a series of backstops that calmed the markets. The crisis has passed—for now at least.
As for who caused this mess in the first place, there are plenty of potential culprits and, for once, crypto is not to blame. You can point to the failure of regulators for failing to spot the systemic risks to the banking system caused by the sudden end to near-zero interest rates. Or you can fault CEO Greg Becker and other execs at SVB for pursuing a growth-at-costs strategy that now seems remarkably ill-advised.
