Did the US Government Just Tell You to Buy Bitcoin?
Can things get any more confusing? One day, the country's banks are on the brink of disaster. Then, euphoria is restored to the markets a couple of days later. What is going on?
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Lady Gaga has a great song called "The Perfect Illusion." While the lyrics in her version tell the story of someone mistaking a relationship for love, I think the term "Perfect Illusion" can be applied to our fiat monetary system. With the most recent bailout of the banks, the US government has changed its mantra from "Too big to fail" to "too small to let it fall."
I understand why the Fed created a facility to ensure all Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) depositors get their money back. We might have seen a bank run of epic proportions if they hadn't. Anyone with over $250 thousand deposits in small banks would have been dumb to keep their funds deposited and not move them to a "too big to fail bank."
A limitless figure has replaced the FDIC limit of $250 thousand. But what conclusions should we draw from this huge adjustment in policy? Should the banks even exist if the government backs up every major bank's deposits? Will they continue to exist? And, if they are eliminated, what can we expect?
Banks have free reign for now
These recent events have tarnished faith and credibility in the banking system. We are confident that our deposits will be paid back in dollars. But we need to be concerned about what these dollars will buy us.
In the meantime, the government continues to give the banks the green light to run their institutions in a risky manner. The executives at SVB recently (in February) sold millions worth of SVB stock that is now worthless. The remaining shareholders get nothing. That would give me pause from investing in bank stocks.
In our current monetary system, banks are a necessary evil. This is because the government can't loan and manage the entire money supply. This gives banking executives a long…
