Note: this is the first of an occasional series of posts prompted by news events, often things I’m trying to figure out. (If you’re reading this post in an email, click here to for a better view in your browser.)
In The News: The Second-Biggest Bank Failure [Silicon Valley Bank] (March 10, 2023)
Close to Home: here’s a story about a depositor at this bank, which happens to be the company where my daughter Malena works.
Understanding Bank Runs: Step 1, read this explanation and short history lesson.
Step 2: watch the scene here from It’s A Wonderful Life referenced above.
Quotes:
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” ― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852)
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” —The Sun Also Rises (1926), by Ernest Hemingway
