Permanently Deleted
This should be adjusted for inflation
Stonks keep going up regardless, markets being rational once again.
At least two of these failures were purely the result of rich people freaking each other out on social media. SVB and First Republic were operating with the full backing of the FDIC, over and above the official limits, and likely could have endured 5% Fed Funds Rates (even profited off them in time) if tens of billions of dollars in panicked depositors hadn’t run on them.
That’s not to say there’s anything structurally sound about any of this shit. But its indicative of how the death blow to these firms is entirely a consequence of the Keynesian Animal Spirits and has nothing to do with the firms’ fundamentals (which were as shit a few years ago as they are now).
What’s really nuts is how JP Morgan is just Pacman-ing these firms, one after another, when its already head and shoulders above everything. I really just have to wonder at the kind of strings a guy like Jamie Daimon can pull at this point. Dude is the closest thing our country’s had to a King since Rockerfeller.
On the bright side, the modern U.S. left exploded after the '08 crisis. Many eventually bought into Obama – it was the End of History, he was running against the demonic record of Bush II, and you have this supposedly left-of-DNC candidate who’s charismatic as hell – but many then-new leftists learned from that, and Obama’s not walking through that door this time.
So you have leftist sentiment as popular as it’s been since, what, the Vietnam War? And there’s yet another unraveling crisis, but this time there’s no easy electoral release valve?
Yeah, but there also isn’t really any org to channel anything into, either.
Relative to 2008, though, there’s a ton. DSA is at least OK and they’re in all 50 states with something like 200+ chapters and 90K+ members. They’re also at least decently established within the political mainstream (they’re seen as “far left” but not a joke). I think other organizations have seen growth at a smaller scale, too.
There’s also a lot more awareness of the value of organization vs., say, protesting.
:ancap-good:
can’t wait to initiate my children in the ritual ablution of capitalism’s failures every decade.
