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      Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Martin Gruenberg testifies

      'The Billionaire Bailout': FDIC Chair Says the Biggest Deposit Accounts at SVB Held $13 Billion

      "The bailout really did protect billionaires from taking a modest haircut," one observer wrote in response to the FDIC chief.

      Jake Johnson
      Mar 28, 2023

      In prepared testimony for a Senate Banking Committee hearing slated for Tuesday morning, the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reveals that the 10 largest deposit accounts at Silicon Valley Bank held a combined $13.3 billion, a detail that's likely to intensify criticism of federal regulators' intervention in the firm's recent collapse.

      When SVB was spiraling earlier this month, the FDIC, Treasury Department, and Federal Reserve rushed in to backstop the financial system and make all depositors at the California bank whole, including those with accounts over $250,000—the total amount typically covered by FDIC insurance.

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      Jerome Powell Testifies Before House Committee On Financial Services

      Reckless Capitalist Banks Rescued by Government Socialism – Again!

      The financial system gets another bailout.

      Ralph Nader
      Mar 21, 2023

      Once again, government socialism—ultimately backed by taxpayers—is saving reckless midsized banks and their depositors. Silicon Valley Bank (S.V.B) and Signature Bank in New York greedily mismanaged their risk levels and had to be closed down. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in return, to avoid a bank panic and a run on other midsized banks went over its $250,000 insurance cap per account and guaranteed all deposits—no matter how large, which are owned by the rich and corporations—in those banks.

      Permitting such imprudent risk-taking flows directly from the Trump-GOP Congressional weakening of regulations in 2018, which was supported by dozens of Democrats, led by bank toady Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.). That bipartisan deregulation provided a filibuster-proof passage by the Senate.

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      An illustrative stock chart and Silicon Valley Bank logo

      Bailing Out the Undeserving Rich—Again

      Wealth creates power; power creates more wealth. Unattended, this can become a vicious cycle.

      Robert Reich
      Mar 20, 2023

      Last week’s bailout of small banks (and it was a bank bailout) needs to be seen in the larger context of America’s soaring inequality.

      The standard conservative explanation for why inequality has widened is that individuals are paid what they’re “worth” — and that a few Americans at the top are now worth extraordinary sums while most Americans are not.

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