Bank Run!

 

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Maybe, if you're an uninsured depositor with SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) which collapsed following a liquidity wipeout brought on by an underwater balance sheet and panic-stricken clients pulling their money out of the fiscal black hole. 

Long story short, SVB was out of cash and the FDIC called game over today and shut the bank down. Via Zerohedge:

Last week we detailed BofA's Michael Hartnett's warning that "The Fed will tighten until something breaks". Well, something just broke... SVB's collapse - the second biggest US bank failure in history - dominated any reaction to this morning's mixed bag from the BLS (hotter than expected earnings growth, rising unemployment (especially for Latinos), better than expected payrolls gains).

 

 

Things started off badly as SVB crashed 65% in the pre-market before being halted. SVB bonds were puking hard and when the FDIC headline hit, the bonds collapsed further... (and) A number of small/medium sized banks were clubbed like a baby seal...

 

 

So far that'd be PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance Bancorp, First Republic Bank/CA, and Signature Bank/NY. Will the contagion spread? That'd depend on people waking up to find their banks, too, are heavily invested in, ahem, safe havens like T-Bills, which are great until interest rates rise and then they're not.

So let's see how this bizarrely sudden Lehman style fiscal implosion plays out. In the meanwhile, smart investors are going full on into ammunition companies, precious metal and DOGE$. OK, that last one's a long game and a good one.

Beware the Ides of March,

LSP

Give Us Back Our Gold!

Rick "he may be a fool but he's our fool" Perry, is backing a bill to get our state's $1 billion out of the New York Fed and back in Texas, where it belongs.

In a statement to the Texas Tribune, Rep Giovanni Capriglione, sponsor of the bill, said, “For us to have our own gold, a lot of the runs on the bank and those types of things, they happen because people are worried that there’s nothing there to back it up.”

Team LSP says right on, get that gold back, before they steal it. Like in Cyprus.

Secede, unless you're Austin, in which case you get to move to San Francisco.

LSP