The Higher Standard

Released Federal Reserve documents seem to indicate that fallout from the U.S. banking crisis is likely to tilt the economy into recession later this year. Minutes from the March meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) included a presentation from staff members on potential repercussions from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and other tumult in the financial sector that began in early March.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss a report from the Labor Department indicating that US producer prices unexpectedly fell in March as the cost of gasoline declined, along with signs that underlying producer inflation was subsiding.Chris and Saied look at analyst's estimates, suggesting that deposits at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America will tumble $521 billion from a year earlier, the biggest drop in a decade.They also offer some thoughts on criminal fraud charges brought by the Department of Justice against Charlie Javice, founder and former CEO of Frank, a startup college financial planning company for students, in which they allege that she "engaged in a brazen scheme" when she sold her company to JPMorgan Chase in 2021.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:The statistics that can be found behind the CPI report.The two main problems with the shelter component of the CPI report.Why the Fed expects a banking crisis to cause a recession this year.The ins and outs of the Charlie Javice fraud case.And so much more...Resources:"US consumer prices rise moderately; underlying inflation too hot" (Reuters)"US labor market gradually losing steam; producer inflation cooling" (Reuters)"U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fall in March" (Reuters)"Fed expects banking crisis to cause a recession this year, minutes show" (CNBC)"Top US banks to reveal $521 billion deposit drop, the most in a decade” (Bloomberg Business)"Deposit Crisis Sets Up a Tough First Quarter for All but the Biggest Banks" (The Wall Street Journal)"Charlie Javice, the founder accused of fraud by JPMorgan, is arrested as DOJ files criminal charges" (Fortune)"The Fed’s efforts to fight housing inflation by hiking interest rates has backfired, Cramer says" (CNBC)"Inflation rises just 0.1% in March and 5% from a year ago as Fed rate hikes take hold" (CNBC)"Bank Volatility to Cut U.S. Economic Growth, IMF Says" (The Wall Street Journal)"Fed expects banking crisis to cause a recession this year, minutes show” (CNBC)"Fed Keeps May Interest-Rate Increase on Table Despite Expected Recession" (The Wall Street Journal)

According to the Labor Department, payrolls grew by 236,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate for 238,000 and below the upwardly revised 326,000 in February. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 3.5%, against expectations that it would hold at 3.6%, with the decrease coming as labor force participation increased to its highest level since before the Covid pandemic.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss Nouriel Roubini's continued calls for disaster, stating that neither the US central bank nor the federal government will have the maneuvering room needed to sufficiently stimulate the economy.Chris and Saied look at a survey by recruiter Robert Walters of 3,000 white collar workers who moved jobs during the pandemic, found that 71% wanted to return to their pre-pandemic employer.They also offer some thoughts on a report from Walmart indicating that it expects about 65% of its stores to be serviced by automation by the end of its fiscal year 2026, just days after revealing plans to lay off more than 2,000 people at facilities that fulfill online orders.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Why job growth in March is not ideal when the Fed is taken into account.Why a strong jobs report hurts the services inflation, something that has not come down since the last CPI report.Why the Saudis and OPEC are moving away from the US dollar.Insight on community banks and their loan loss provisions.And so much more...Resources:"Bosses are training employees to be influencers - after long discouraging social media posts about work" (Forbes via Instagram)"Who is Nouriel Roubini, Wall Street's 'Dr. Doom' economist who has warned of catastrophe for 2 decades?" (Markets Insider)"Morgan Stanley analysts are forecasting something ‘worse than in the Great Financial Crisis’ for commercial real estate" (Yahoo! Finance)"Bank Failures. High Inflation. Rising Rates. Is the Resilient Jobs Market About to Crack?" (The Wall Street Journal)"Private payrolls rose by 145,000 in March, well below expectations, ADP says" (CNBC)"Job growth totals 236,000 in March, near expectations as hiring pace slows" (CNBC)"Bosses Want Hard Workers — So They’re Hiring Older People" (The Wall Street Journal)"Great Resignation becomes Great Regret as workers long for their pre-Covid jobs" (Yahoo! Finance)"Walmart aims for 65% of stores to be automation serviced by 2026" (Yahoo! Finance)"Here's how many U.S. workers ChatGPT says it could replace" (Yahoo! Finance)"The coming commercial real estate crash that may never happen" (CNBC)"Diddy still pays Sting ‘$5,000 a day’ for sampling his hit song ‘Every Breath You Take’ 26 years ago" (CNBC)"U.S. Debt to GDP Ratio 1989-2023" (Macrotrends)

One of the world’s most well-known economists believes the banking crisis is far from over, and that U.S. authorities are merely buying themselves some time by insisting the banking system is “sound.” Nouriel Roubini, chief executive of consulting firm Roubini Macro Associates, argued on Friday that the financial system will be unable to cope with the sheer scale of private and public debt that has already been amassed, spawning a “trilemma” that will soon trigger another phase of panic.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss the news that an inflation gauge that the Federal Reserve follows closely rose slightly less than anticipated in February, providing some hope that interest rate hikes are helping ease price increases.Chris and Saied look at comments from asset management giant BlackRock stating that investors are too confident the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year and could pay the price later.They also offer some thoughts on Jim Cramer's assertion that he’s still searching for the first sign of a recession, even though it’s all anyone seems to be talking about.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Why Moody’s expects home prices to decline about 4% both in 2023 and in 2024.The impact of the Federal Reserve’s rate increases on banks.Why the Fed is on track to lose 100 billion by the end of the year.Why markets are betting that the Fed will start cutting rates by July.And so much more...Resources:"Key Fed inflation gauge rose 0.3% in February, less than expected" (article from CNBC)"Home prices suddenly jump after several months of declines" (article from CNBC)"Bank Stress, Softer Inflation Just Made Fed’s Life Easier" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"BlackRock warns that investors are making a mistake by betting on the Fed to cut rates" (article from CNBC)"‘Dr. Doom’ Nouriel Roubini warns economic ‘trilemma’ is making a financial crash inevitable" (article from Fortune)"A recession may be coming, but Jim Cramer says he’s not seeing the early signs yet" (article from CNBC)

$47 billion. That's the amount of market capitalization Charles Schwab has had wiped out in just one month. The stock fell 33% between Feb. 28 and March 31. At the end of February, Charles Schwab's shares were trading at around $77.92. A month later, the price fell to $52.38. This is Charles Schwab's worst month since the October 1987 stock market crash, known as Black Monday. That day, the Dow Jones index lost 508 points, a decline of 22.6% and the largest daily decline in a stock market index at the time. Only the drop by 76% of the Icelandic stock market in 2008 would exceed this record.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss Federal Reserve data, showing that depositors have removed another $126 billion from U.S. banks during the week ending March 22. The biggest 25 banks lost $90 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis. Smaller banks, which suffered massive withdrawals the previous week as regulators seized regional lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, were able to stabilize their outflows.Chris and Saied look at a story from Forbes, indicating that more than 136,000 people lost their jobs in major layoffs at U.S. companies over the fiscal quarter ending this week, more than the prior two quarters combined, as tech and manufacturing layoffs, led by Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, surged.They also offer some thoughts on new housing market data, showing that existing home sales dropped in 12 of the last 13 months and existing home prices peaked last June. The surge of home prices during the height of the pandemic and the jump in mortgage rates since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates last March dampened home demand.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Why cash remains king in this economy.How consumers can guage buy or sell opportunities.Why McDonald’s is closing its U.S. corporate offices as it lays off hundreds of workers.Why there's been mostly silence from the National Bureau of Economic Research.And so much more...Resources:"Depositors yank another $126 billion from US banks" (article from Yahoo! Finance)"Charles Schwab Loses $47 Billion in Market Value in One Month" (article from TheStreet)"136,000 laid off in major US job cuts this quarter - more than prior two quarters combined” (Forbes via Instagram)"McDonald's temporarily shuts US offices, prepares layoff notices, Wall Street Journal reports" (article from Reuters)"US Housing Market in Trouble: Moody's Predicts Home Prices Will Fall in 2023 and 2024" (article from TheStreet)"Instagram sold 44,000,000 blue checks in one day at $15 a check" (DJ Key via Instagram)"McDonald’s closes corporate offices as it lays off hundreds of workers" (article from CNBC)

As the US banking crisis drags on, investors are starting to unearth risks within Charles Schwab that have been hiding in plain sight. Unrealized losses on the firm’s balance sheet, loaded with long-dated bonds, ballooned to more than $29 billion last year. At the same time, higher interest rates are encouraging customers to move their cash out of certain accounts that underpin Schwab’s business and bolster its bottom line.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss news that Credit Suisse, the collapsed Swiss bank taken over by UBS Group in a hastily arranged bailout, has provided a safe haven for wealthy American clients to hide assets from the IRS — even after it was caught and prosecuted for doing the same thing more than a decade ago, according two former Credit Suisse bankers who are working with the U.S. government as whistleblowers.Chris and Saied look at a report from the Labour Department, indicating that jobless claims for the week ended March 25 totaled 198,000, up 7,000 from the previous period and a bit higher than the 195,000 estimate.They also offer some thoughts on the recent news that Binance Holdings, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, are being sued by a US regulator for allegedly breaking trading and derivatives rules. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Binance shirked its obligations by not properly registering with it.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Where Silicon Valley Bank falls in line with the other banks across the country.How a company’s market capitalization is estimated.Why pending home sales were up 0.8% month over month in February.The concept of a mansion tax.And so much more...Resources:"First Citizens shares soar 50% after the bank buys a large chunk of failed Silicon Valley Bank" (article from CNBC)"Where Financial Risk Lies, in 12 Charts" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Charles Schwab's $7 trillion empire built on low rates is showing cracks" (Bloomberg Businessweek via Instagram)"Minneapolis Fed chair Neel Kashkari says "fundamentally, the banking system is sound"" (CBS News)Debt on Blackstone buildings 47% more than portfolio's worth" (The RealDeal via Instagram)"Apple plans to launch Apple Pay later - allowing users to split purchases into four payments with no additional fees” (Complex via Instagram)Nick Gerli via Twitter“Jobless claims edge up to 198,000, higher than expected” (article from CNBC)"Binance crypto exchange and CEO "CZ" Zhao sued by US regulator" (Bloomberg Business via Instagram)"Look: The Brutal Layoff Email Disney CEO Bob Iger Sent Employees Today" (article from TheStreet)StockMKTNewz - Evan via Twitter"Higher Rates Are Coming for U.S. Companies" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Markets Are Wrong on US Rate-Cut Bets, BlackRock Says" (article from Yahoo! Finance)"A Tale of Two Housing Markets: Prices Fall in the West While the East Booms" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Binance Sued by CFTC Over Evading U.S. Rules" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Binance Sees $2 Billion in Outflows as Troubles Compound" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"US pending home sales rise for third straight month; loan demand increases" (article from Reuters)"Credit Suisse whistleblowers say Swiss bank has been helping wealthy Americans dodge U.S. taxes for years" (article from CNBC)"Thanks to regulators, SVB will be the most costly bank failure in history" (article from The Hill)

As a series of U.S. lenders were besieged by customers yanking out their money this month, banking giants such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. warned employees: Do not make it worse. JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, told all employees they "should never give the appearance of exploiting a situation of stress or uncertainty," in a March 13 memo. "We do not make disparaging comments regarding competitors."In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss data showing that customers have recently pulled nearly $100 billion in deposits, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and more than a dozen other officials convened a special closed meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.Chris and Saied look at news that Deutsche Bank’s stock plunged Friday as the market hones in on the German firm as the next major bank at risk in the wake of long-time rival Credit Suisse’s collapse and similar events stateside. Frankfurt-listed shares of Deutsche Bank dropped 7.5%, now down more than 25% since March 8, when confidence in the international banking system began to crumble.They also offer some thoughts on data from Trepp, an analytics provider for the Structured Finance, CRE, and Banking markets, indicating that this year, roughly $270 billion in commercial mortgages held by banks are set to expire. This means that big owners of property face the prospect that beleaguered banks, especially smaller ones, could get more aggressive with lending arrangements, giving landlords even less room to breathe as they try to refinance a mountain of loans coming due.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Paul Volcker’s monetary policy career and Ben Bernanke’s role in AIG bailout.Jerome Powell's role in the current banking crisis.The two different types of lender in the commercial real estate space.Why JP Morgan and Bank of America have been telling staff not to poach clients from stressed competitors.And so much more...Resources:"Volcker Slayed Inflation. Bernanke Saved the Banks. Can Powell Do Both?" (article from Bloomberg)"Exclusive: JPMorgan, Citi, BofA tell staff not to poach clients from stressed banks" (article from Reuters)"Nearly $100 billion in deposits pulled from banks; officials call system ‘sound and resilient’" (article from CNBC)Custodia Bank via Twitter"Veteran of FDIC Takeover Tells What It’s Like to Run a Failed Bank" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"What’s Going On at Deutsche Bank?" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Commercial real estate is in trouble. A banking crisis will make it worse." (article from Yahoo! Finance)"Elon Musk says Jerome Powell is so bad at his job that GPT-4 would be a better Fed chair: ‘This foolish rate hike will worsen depositor flight’" (article from Yahoo! Finance)

Recession chatter has returned on Wall Street as markets deal with the blow of several bank failures and the potential economic aftermath. The likelihood of a U.S. recession is back on the rise for the first time since November 2022, according to the latest Bank of America fund manager survey released on Tuesday. About 42% of fund managers surveyed see a recession happening within the next 12 months, up from 24% in February. While fund managers aren't in universal agreement on a recession, they are almost in unison on the economy being stagnant over the next 12 months.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss data released by the Census Bureau, stating that housing starts, a measure of new home construction, rose by 9.8% in February from January, though that’s still down 18.4% from a year ago. Starts in January rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.450 million, up from the revised January estimate of 1.321 million.Chris and Saied look at news that the Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled fraud and unregistered securities charges against crypto founder and Grenadian diplomat Justin Sun, alongside separate violations against the celebrity backers of his Tronix and BitTorrent crypto assets, which included Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy.They also offer some thoughts on a review by Bloomberg News indicating that, in terms of layoffs, 2023 had the the worst start to a year since 2009, with nearly 52,000 jobs lost in one week in January alone. Since Oct. 1, executives across sectors have sacked almost half a million employees around the world.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Why small regional banks really help small to midsize businesses.The importance of understanding that the FOMC’s economic projections are not linear.The difference between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Agency.The importance of getting permits before you apply for a construction loan.And so much more...Resources:"Yellen: U.S. Could Intervene Again to Protect Banking System" (video from The Wall Street Journal)"Home Prices Fell in February for First Time in 11 Years" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Global layoffs stretch far beyond big tech" (Bloomberg Business via Instagram)"‘Already past the point of no return’: JPMorgan says the U.S. is probably headed for a recession as economic ‘engines are about to turn off’" (article from Fortune)"Gen Z is racking up credit card debt faster than any other generation" (Businessweek via Instagram)"BofA: 'Recession fears are up in March'" (article from Yahoo! Finance)"Goldman boosts US recession odds after slashing GDP forecast" (article from Yahoo! Finance)"U.S. SEC threatens to sue Coinbase over some crypto products" (article from Reuters)"Fed Raises Rates but Nods to Greater Uncertainty After Banking Stress" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Home sales spike 14.5% in February as the median price drops for the first time in over a decade" (article from CNBC)"US home building surged in February" (article from CNN)"Irvine company to build 4.5K apartments in Irvine" (article from TheRealDeal)"LA cuts revenue predictions from new transfer tax by 25%" (article from TheRealDeal)"SEC charges Tron founder Justin Sun, celebrities Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul with crypto violations" (article from CNBC)"Jake Paul earned over $2 million by promoting pump and dump crypto schemes" (article from Cryptoslate)"11 things millennials ruined" (article from Mashable)

Banking giant UBS is in discussions to take over all or parts of Credit Suisse, with the boards of Switzerland's two biggest lenders set to meet separately over the weekend. The Swiss National Bank and regulator FINMA are organising the talks in an attempt to build confidence in the country's banking sector. On Friday evening, Swiss regulators informed their counterparts in the United States and United Kingdom that the merger of the two banks was their "Plan A" to salvage the confidence in Credit Suisse. Several other options are also under discussion between the two banks as both sides try to evaluate regulatory constraints in different jurisdictions.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss an 85-year long study by Harvard researchers indicating that, while particular roles can’t be reliably correlated with dissatisfaction and burnout, certain job characteristics can be. Jobs that require little human interaction and don’t offer opportunities to build meaningful relationships with co-workers tend to have the most miserable employees, the study found.Chris and Saied look at news that Bitcoin has climbed to a nine-month high as turmoil in the banking sector drives some investors to turn to digital assets. It rose as far as $28,567, its highest since mid-June, and was last up 0.9%, amid growing expectations that central banks would slow the pace of interest rate hikes.They also offer some thoughts on contingent convertible bonds, or CoCos, often described as high-yield investments with a hand grenade attached. The UBS takeover of Credit Suisse has pulled the pin on $17 billion of them.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:What’s happened at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Tuesday.Why Switzerland is known for having low levels of financial risk and high levels of privacy.Why the axing of Credit Suisse’s $17 billion contingent convertible (CoCo) debt has big implications for the newly combined bank and the wider market.Bitcoin's climb to a nine-month high as turmoil in the banking sector sparks a rally.And so much more...Resources:Markets and Mayhem via Twitter"UBS in talks to acquire Credit Suisse" (article from The Financial Times)Ulrich Körner via Wikipedia"UBS buys Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion as regulators look to shore up the global banking system" (article from CNBC)"UBS Agrees to Buy Credit Suisse for More Than $3 Billion" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Big Banks Best Positioned to Weather Crisis: Morningstar" (article from The Street)"Credit Suisse's $17 billion of risky bonds are now worthless" (Bloomberg via Instagram)"Why $17 billion in risky debt was wiped out in Credit Suisse rescue deal" (Bloomberg via Instagram)Zerohedge via Twitter"Bitcoin climbs to 9-month high as bank turmoil sparks rally" (article from Reuters)"85-year Harvard study found that people with this type of job tend to be the unhappiest" (article from CNBC)"Local Banks Could Leave Gaps That Are Hard to Fill" (article from The Wall Street Journal)

In a morning where more banking turmoil emerged and stocks opened sharply lower on Wall Street, traders shifted pricing to indicate that the Fed may hold the line when it meets March 21-22. According to CME Group data, the probability for no rate hike shot up to as high as 65%. Trading was volatile, though, and the latest moves suggested nearly a 50-50 split between no rate hike and a 0.25 percentage point move. Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow policymakers will resolve the question over raising rates by watching macroeconomic reports that continue to flow in, as well as data from regional banks and their share prices that could provide larger clues about the health of the financial sector.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss the Census Bureau's most recent Household Pulse survey, which indicates that about 36% of consumers say it has been "somewhat" to "very difficult" for them to pay their usual bills in the last seven days.Chris and Saied look at data from the Labor Department, revealing that inflation rose in February but was in line with expectations, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on track for another interest rate hike next week despite recent banking industry turmoil. The consumer price index increased 0.4% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 6%.They also offer some thoughts on news that Credit Suisse Group AG is borrowing up to 50 billion Swiss francs, equivalent to $53.7 billion, from the Swiss central bank to shore up its liquidity, capping a day in which fears about the health of global banks leapfrogged to Europe from North America and the giant lender’s shares dropped as much as 24%.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:Why the CPI will likely continue to come down.The real cause of the recent bank failures.Why Bank of America received more than $15 billion in deposits after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.The levels of regulatory scrutiny banks are required to have as they grow.And so much more...Resources:"Bank stocks rebound, but crisis makes the Fed’s next move harder" (article from The Washington Post)"Where inflation is... and isn't" (Yahoo! Finance via Instagram)"BofA Gets More Than $15 Billion in Deposits After SVB Fails" (article from Bloomberg)"What’s going on with Silicon Valley Bank?" (Dave Ramsey via Instagram)"Goldman Sachs no longer expects the Fed to hike rates in March, cites stress on banking system" (article from CNBC)"Stablecoin USDC breaks dollar peg after firm reveals it has $3.3 billion in SVB exposure" (article from CNBC)"More Americans say they can't pay their bills. Here are the states where it's worst." (article from CBS News)"Banks Borrow $164.8 Billion From Fed in Rush to Backstop Liquidity" (article from Bloomberg)"One of the best ways to figure out what the Fed will do next is to look at regional bank stocks" (article from CNBC)"Credit Suisse Promises Overhaul in Wake of Rout as Regulators Offer Lifeline" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Economy Shows Signs of Cooling as Bank Troubles Spread" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"Wholesale prices post unexpected decline of 0.1% in February; retail sales fall" (article from CNBC)"Inflation gauge increased 0.4% in February, as expected and up 6% from a year ago" (article from CNBC)"Moody's cuts outlook on U.S. banking system to negative, citing 'rapidly deteriorating operating environment'" (article from CNBC)

As we already know, Silicon Valley Bank, one of tech’s favorite lenders, has collapsed, becoming the second-largest bank failure in US history. The bank’s blowup has sent shockwaves across the tech sector, Wall Street, and Washington, amid concerns that other banks could be in trouble or that contagion could set in. In the days after SVB’s collapse, the panic appeared to spread, leading to the failure of additional banks, including Signature Bank of New York, which had bet on crypto. But it’s not clear how serious the fallout will be.In this episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied examine this news and determine the effect it will have on the economy as a whole.They discuss news that Goldman Sachs no longer believes that the Federal Reserve will deliver a rate hike at its meeting next week, citing “recent stress” in the financial sector.Chris and Saied look at comments from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicating that a major government bailout of Silicon Valley Bank is not an option.They also offer some thoughts on the departure of Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker from the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.Join Chris and Saied for this fascinating and informative conversation.Enjoy!What You’ll Learn in this Show:What actually happened at Silicon Valley Bank and which sector has been hurt most by its collapse.Why 14 years of artificial interest rate deflation and unprecedented interest rate increases were guaranteed to create problems.The bizarre phenomenon of new jobs being implemented on a monthly basis while layoffs continue to happen.How Silicon Valley Bank made the Forbes list of America’s Best Banks for the fifth consecutive year.And so much more...Resources:"What’s Going on With Silicon Valley Bank?" (article from The Wall Street Journal)"US Discusses Fund to Backstop Deposits If More Banks Fail" (article from Bloomberg)"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says U.S. government won’t bail out Silicon Valley Bank" (article from CNBC)"Strong jobs report shows 311,000 jobs added in February" (article from CBS News)"Fed Rate Pivot Is Back in Play" (article from Bloomberg)"Goldman Sachs no longer expects the Fed to hike rates in March, cites stress on banking system" (article from CNBC)"CEO of failed Silicon Valley Bank no longer a director at San Francisco Fed" (article from Reuters)"Stablecoin USDC breaks dollar peg after firm reveals it has $3.3 billion in SVB exposure" (article from CNBC)"What Country Has the Most Banks?" (article from HelgiLibrary)