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Daily Dispatches

Clint Siegner: It turns out that Treasuries aren't risk-free after all

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Clint Siegner
Money Metals News Service, Eagle, Idaho
Monday, March 13, 2023

The high-profile collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week is a story about bad debt, just not in the way most people think.

Bank executives didn't issue too many loans to poor quality borrowers. They made what they believed to be conservative investments in the safest of all assets. The bad debt turned out to be U.S. Treasuries - an asset class they assumed to be "risk-free."

Accountants gave SVB, Signature Bank clean bill of health just before collapse

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Jonathan Weil and Jean Eaglesham
The Wall Street Journal
Monday, March 13, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank failed just 14 days after KPMG LLP gave the lender a clean bill of health. Signature Bank went down 11 days after the accounting firm signed off on its audit.

What KPMG knew about the two banks' financial situation and what it missed will likely be the subject of regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits.

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Moral hazard is concern as U.S. intervenes to save big banks

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Scott Murdoch and Carolina Mandl
Reuters
Monday, March 13, 2023

U.S. regulators may have stemmed a banking crisis by guaranteeing deposits of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), but some experts warn that the move has encouraged bad investor behavior.

Following a weekend of discussions over the future of SVB owner SVB Financial Group, banking regulators unveiled emergency funding plans for the bank.

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U.S. banks have unrealized losses of $620 billion, FDIC says

Section: Daily Dispatches


By Nicole Goodkind
CNN, New York
Sunday, March 12, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank's collapse last week sent tingles of panic down investors' spines as it highlighted a larger problem across the banking sector: The widening gap between the value large lenders place on the bonds they hold and what they're actually worth on the market.

SVB’s downfall was tied, in part, to the plunge in the value of bonds it acquired during boom times, when it had a lot of customer deposits coming in and needed somewhere to park the cash.

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Pam and Russ Martens: Silicon Valley Bank was a Wall Street IPO pipeline in drag as a U.S.-insured bank

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Pam and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Monday, March 13, 2023

If you want to genuinely understand why Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed and why Jerome Powell’s Fed led the effort yesterday to make sure $150 billion of the bank’s uninsured depositors’ money would be treated as FDIC insured and available today, you need to take a look at how the bank defined itself right up until it blew up on Friday.

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U.S. bails out Silicon Valley and Signature Bank and their uninsured depositors

Section: Daily Dispatches

Who was worried about bail-ins?

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SVB, Signature Bank Depositors to Get All Their Money as Fed Moves to Stem Crisis

By Nick Timiraos
The Wall Street Journal
Sunday, March 11, 2023

U.S. regulators took control of a second bank on Sunday and raced to roll out emergency measures to stem potential spillovers from Friday's swift collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, backstopping uninsured depositors and making more funding available to the banking system.

Jay Newman: Why the U.S. dollar has become an at-risk currency

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Jay Newman
New York Post
Saturday, March 11, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/03/11/why-the-us-dollar-has-become-an-at-risk-currency/

Everywhere you turn there’s chatter about the ongoing US economic sanctions against Russia. The Russian Central Bank, Russian banks, Russian companies, Russian oligarchs -- and anyone caught helping them -- have seen their fortunes entangled since Moscow invaded Ukraine just over a year ago.

BIS gold swaps reflect U.S. move to knock the price and protect dollar, Maguire says

Section: Daily Dispatches

9:24p ET Friday, March 10, 2023

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

London metals trader Andrew Maguire tells this week's "Live from the Vault" program from Kinesis Money that the recent 100-tonne increase in gold swaps undertaken by the Bank for International Settlements was a dumping of gold by the United States to protect the dollar.

Two former traders get jail for 'spoofing' monetary metals futures

Section: Daily Dispatches

Former Wall Street Precious Metal Traders Sentenced for Wire Fraud

From the U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, March 9, 2023

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-wall-street-precious-metal-traders-sentenced-wire-fraud

Pam and Russ Martens: Bank stocks plummet as runs gain momentum at non-traditional banks

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Pam and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Friday, March 10, 2023

If you keep a diary or news journal, be sure to write down March 9, 2023, as the day that a full-blown bank run began at non-traditional banks in the United States.

Bank depositors were already nervous after federally-insured Silvergate Bank (ticker SI) announced Wednesday evening that it was closing and liquidating. Its publicly traded stock had already lost over 90% of its market value over the prior 12 months.

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