How deep is the rot in America’s banking industry?
Silicon Valley Bank may be the start of something grimmer
Banking is a confidence trick. Financial history is littered with runs, for the straightforward reason that no bank can survive if enough depositors want to be repaid at the same time. The trick, therefore, is to ensure that customers never have cause to whisk away their cash. It is one that bosses at Silicon Valley Bank (svb), formerly America’s 16th-largest lender, failed to perform at a crucial moment.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The prop-up job”
Finance & economics
March 18th 2023- How deep is the rot in America’s banking industry?
- For markets Silicon Valley Bank’s demise signals a painful new phase
- The search for Silicon Valley Bank-style portfolios
- What the loss of Silicon Valley Bank means for Silicon Valley
- Credit Suisse faces share-price turbulence, as fear sweeps the market
- Is the global investment boom turning to bust?
- The Fed smothers capitalism in an attempt to save it

From the March 18th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionTrump’s tariff turbulence is worse than anyone imagined
Even his concessions are less generous than expected
Why silver is the new gold
Safe-haven demand and solar panels have sent its price soaring
Trump’s new tariffs are his most extreme ever
America targets its three biggest trading partners: Canada, Mexico and China
El Salvador’s wild crypto experiment ends in failure
Its curtailment is the price of an IMF bail-out. And one worth paying
America is at risk of a Trumpian economic slowdown
Protectionist threats and erratic policies are combining to hurt growth
India has undermined a popular myth about development
Extreme poverty in the country has dropped to negligible levels