By Sandra Block and Anne Kates Smith From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created in 1933, no bank customer has lost a penny in insured deposits, even during the darkest days of the 2008-09 financial crisis. But that didn’t prevent some savers from breaking into a cold sweat in…
World’s Largest Real Estate Market on the Brink of Collapse: Experts
Recent statistics from China’s central bank show that home buyers’ enthusiasm has fallen drastically. Despite price cuts and incentives, the world’s largest housing market continues to slump, and China’s banking sector is taking a hit on two fronts, as both defaults and prepayments rise. Meanwhile, China’s developers are starting to show the strain, with real…
Mervyn King’s Proposal for Preventing Bank Runs Deserves Another Hearing
Commentary March was a bad month for the Dodd-Frank Act. We now know that Dodd-Frank, passed in the wake of the 2007–2008 banking crisis, doesn’t prevent bank runs. Neither do post–2008 arrangements tell depositors whether large deposits are safe or should be withdrawn with a swipe on a smartphone. This time, uninsured deposits were bailed…
Now It’s Housing Again
Commentary Fifteen years ago, the entire housing sector sunk from its highs. Because so much debt is involved in this market, carried by banks but then bundled without regard to risk and resold in financial markets, this turn of events precipitated a financial crisis that spread around the world. Government and central banks undertook unprecedented…
Several Landmines Ahead for US Economy
Commentary Markets have remained relatively stable since the Federal Reserve announced a 25-basis-point hike in March, with no negative surprises jumping out of the U.S. banking sector. But the U.S. economy remains on the verge of trouble. There are landmines on several fronts that could hurt businesses and consumers. And all of this makes the…
Why the Banking Crisis May Just Be Beginning
News Analysis Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed in spectacular and sudden fashion on March 10, becoming the second largest bank to do so in our nation’s history and triggering panic in our banking system in the process. Although virtually everyone knows of SVB’s failure, not everyone understands exactly why Silicon Valley Bank failed. Many have…
Is America Still a Capitalist Society? The Case for Letting the Market Speak
Commentary In theory, America is a capitalistic society. One beautiful part about capitalism is that everyone gets to participate. If you create value, you get rewarded for it. If you invent something new and create a lot of value, you get rewarded handsomely for your effort. However, the flip side of living in a capitalistic…
How to Shelter in the Financial Storm
Commentary The banking crisis, which became visible to most Americans only with the sudden and unexpected collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) two weeks ago, has not abated. There are reasons to believe it will become worse. So, what should one do to get out of harm’s way? Is it possible to find shelter in…
The Bank Meltdown Has Just Begun
Commentary Elite overseers of the U.S. banking system spent the better part of the week assuring us that all is well with it. You just have to trust them. They know. And we all know how much we can trust our overlords to tell us the truth, right? Such a wonderful track record of at…
Silicon Valley Bank and the Soft Pivot of Our Weak-Kneed Fed
Commentary Old habits die hard for the folks over at the Federal Reserve, who immediately rung in the 2023 financial crisis with what will in due time be recalled as the fifth round of quantitative easing, the Fed’s preferred term for monetary expansion. It’s now apparent that the Fed currently finds itself between a proverbial…
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