And Now for a Little Bank Panic – WSJ

There s nothing like a bank panic to make for a relaxing weekend. Markets took another header on Friday, as regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th largest U.S. bank and the biggest to fail since the 2008 crisis. This came days after Silvergate Capital announced it is liquidating its bank. Cracks in the financial system emerge whenever interest rates rise quickly after an easy-credit mania, and the surprise is that it took so long.

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over SVB on Friday and may have to collect more bodies by the time the Federal Reserve is done correcting its easy-money mistakes. At least that seems to be the fear of investors, judging by the sharp selloff in regional bank stocks like First Republic Bank (-14.8%) and PacWest Bancorp (-37.9%).

via www.wsj.com

Oh hell. Is it time to convert my money market funds into junk silver? Stock up on rice and beans? Search for a remote Utah ranch for sale? Restore depleted ammo stocks? Nahhhh. Just worry about those things. That’s the ticket. Especially when the alternative is doing real work.