It's been 90 years since the United States has experienced early warning signs of a classic bank run. The savings and loan crisis was very drawn out over the course of time. Everything was handled through backroom deals very swiftly and over time. We haven't seen liquidity crises like this since really the 1930s. This is the first time in a long time.
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The English word ‘bank’ meaning a depository and lending institution, derives from the Italian word ‘banca’, or ‘bench.’ This belies the origins of modern finance in Renaissance Italy, where deals initially struck at coffee house benches evolved into the great trading and banking houses of the Medicis, where double-entry book keeping enabled the matching of debtors with creditors that spurred the growth of industrial Europe over the coming centuries. Today, with daily capital flows measured in the trillions of dollars enabled by high-speed fiber optics and a global communications network, major decisions happen much more quickly, and because of the levered nature of fractional reserve finance, regional concern can magnify into global contagion faster than an actual pandemic. In the case of last weekend, where Silicon Valley Bank, one of the top-30 global banks went into receivership, the political institutions of the United States were caught off guard, and in an attempt to quell further concerns, went into overdrive this week as the Federal Reserve discount window was opened guaranteeing the assets of all major banks. Not to be outdone, the Swiss National Bank just intervened in the takeover of Credit Suisse, a century and half years old institution, to further halt panic in European markets. Memories of the 2008 financial crisis are on everyone’s mind, and the ripple effects of these events are surely to continue throughout the year.
