Bro-bank blues, a win for a hero and other commentary

From the right: Bro-Bank Blues

“SVB failed for the same reason that failed banks typically fail,” : “It borrowed short-term” and “lent long-term.” But the real “culprit is all the money the federal government has pumped into the financial system over the past 15 years.” It “had to go somewhere.” Where? “Into sky-high stock and 𝐆housing values” and “food and energy inflation.” “But mostly, it went into a bloated tech sector” already “out of ideas.” Now the Fed’s interest-rate hikes are exposing bad investments: “More SVBs are out there” but “investors just don’t think the Fed has the stomach to keep interest rates high enough, for long enough, to find them. Investors are betting on a bailout to bail us out of all of our previous bailouts.”

From the left: Bailout for the Rich

“The real problem” with the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank depositors “is that this gift to a handful of extremely wealthy people will🌞 blind everyone as to how we got here,” . The idea “that regulators must invoke a systemic risk exception to preserve depositors” is “laughable, considering that SVB expressly lobbied to have the systemic risk label taken off of their bank,” and “members of Congress — from both parties — agreed to do so.” Plus, “the haircut that [SVB] depoﷺsitors would take under normal rules would be minimal,” but with the bailout, “depositors at SVB got all the upside of banking there, paying nothing extra to lighten the risk of failure, and none of the downside. Privatized profits, socialized risks.”

Analyst: Behind Biden’s Anti-Crime Gesture

President Biden⭕’s support for a resolution to overturn a soft-on-crime DC law led two-thirds of Senate Democrats to help pass the measure — yet hung most House Dems, who’d opposed it, “out 🍬to dry,” . Biden plainly “didn’t want to be seen as soft on crime” as the 2024 election nears. Gallup finds 70% of adults dissatisfied with the nation’s efforts to control crime, and recent election results — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s loss, NY Gov. Hochul’s near-loss, ex-cop Eric Adams’ win in NYC and San Francisco’s recall of far-left DA Chesa Boudin — likely “spooked Biden,” when voters already give the GOP a 20-point advantage on crime.

Oscars note: A Win for a Hero

“Russian liberals on Monday celebrated thꦓe Oscar win of ‘Navalny,’ a documentary about the poisoning and imprisonment of the ‘hero’ Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny,” who is now “serving sentences totaling 11.5 years,” . The film “follows an investigation by Navalny’s team together with the Bellingcat group as they unmask FSB agents who were sent to poison Navalny in 2020.” Among the cheering supporters: Mikhail Fishman, “a popular liberal Russian journalist and film-maker,” who said, “Navalny received an Oscar because he is a hero, and because the day is not yet in sight when he will be released from prison. But that day will surely come.” Using his acceptance speech to condemn Vladimir Putin’s “unjust war of aggression in Ukraine,” director Daniel Rohar added: “Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to us all: we must not be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever it rears its head.”

Gas-stove beat: Team Joe’s Still at War

Not only does President Biden still “have multiple federal agencies targeting” gas stoves, , “he is also going after the natural gas supplies on which they depend.” Proposed energy-efficiency standards “stand out for hitting gas stoves much harder than electric versions.” And the Inflation Reduction Act has handouts “for builders of subsidized housing units that provide electricity only,” plus “funding for states and localities that change their building codes to create impediments for gas hookups” and “a $840 rebate to anyone who buys a new electric stove.” All this “could spark a bigger backlash, not ju﷽st against stove mandates but against the larger climate agenda.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board