Last Friday, California state regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) became the receiver. Its stock price had lost over 80 percent of its market value over the prior year; $150 billion of its $175 billion in deposits were uninsured, either because they exceeded the $250,000 FDIC cap and/or they were foreign deposits. The bank was effectively operating as a Wall Street IPO pipeline in drag as a federally-insured bank. The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco had quietly been bailing it out – to the tune of $15 billion. Oh – and by the way – its primary regulator was the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. And while all of this hubris was occurring, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, Gregory Becker, was sitting on the Board of Directors of his regulator, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
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Oh, and by the way, the Fed member banks in each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts that can choose to be regulated by the Fed, literally own their regulator. That’s right, they own the stock in their regional Fed bank, which is a private institution, unlike the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. which is an “independent” federal agency. (See, for example, These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button.)
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Adding to the ongoing arrogance of the Fed, its Chairman, Jerome Powell, released a statement two minutes after the market closed yesterday, stating that “The events surrounding Silicon Valley Bank demand a thorough, transparent, and swift review…” So, once again, it’s decided to investigate itself. The Fed’s Vice Chairman for Supervision, Michael Barr, will oversee the investigation.
Tag: FTX.US
Silicon Valley Bank wasn’t “woke”: Tech billionaires are just as bad as Wall Street bros
Ignore GOP hype about the “liberal” tech industry — reckless, entitled libertarianism is what fuels Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley Bank wasn’t “woke”: Tech billionaires are just as bad as Wall Street bros
Related:
Elizabeth Warren: Silicon Valley Bank Is Gone. We Know Who Is Responsible.
Michael Hudson: Why the US banking system is breaking up
Economist Michael Hudson responds to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and explains the similarities with the 2008 financial crash and the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.
Michael Hudson: Why the US banking system is breaking up
Cryptocurrency News: US Regulators Should ‘Maybe’ Ban Crypto + Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022
Banking Committee Chair: US Regulators Should ‘Maybe’ Ban Crypto
The senator [Sherrod Brown] also pointed to numerous incidents to back up his claims, not just the recent collapse of FTX but also issues such as “the threat to national security from Korean cyber criminals to drug trafficking and human trafficking and financing of terrorism and all the things that can come out of crypto.”
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Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled a new bill governing cryptocurrencies earlier this month, dubbed the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Warren’s bill would look to force crypto asset providers to offer audited financial statements and impose bank-like capital requirements more in line with what is expected of traditional financial institutions. The act would also give the SEC increased powers to regulate the asset class.
Get ready for the Digital Dollar!
Related:
Read More »The FTX Collapse Is Also a Huge Campaign Finance Scandal
Sam Bankman-Fried was set to testify before Congress on Tuesday, but before he could appear, he was arrested in the Bahamas. Not surprisingly, most of the charges he’s facing involve allegations of fraud related to the collapse of FTX, his crypto-trading platform. But a federal indictment unveiled Tuesday also accuses SBF—a prolific political donor who cultivated relationships with politicians and policymakers—of campaign finance violations.
The FTX Collapse Is Also a Huge Campaign Finance Scandal
Sheila Bair, Former Chair of the FDIC, Is Now an “Organizer/Director” of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that Got a U.S. National Bank Charter Last Year
On November 17, Sheila Bair, the former Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) during the financial crisis of 2008, went on CNBC to lament the lack of controls leading to the collapse of the crypto currency exchange, FTX. During the interview, Bair used the phrase “nobody looking behind the curtain.”
Sheila Bair, Former Chair of the FDIC, Is Now an “Organizer/Director” of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that Got a U.S. National Bank Charter Last Year
Related (why no one was prosecuted for the financial crisis of 2007–2008 + another comment):
Read More »Evidence Grows that Crypto and Federally-Insured Banks Are a Combustible Mixture
The fallout from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and its missing billions of dollars of customer funds has, finally, galvanized some members of Congress to push back against the swarms of crypto lobbyists whose activities are clearly impacting the safety and soundness of U.S. banks.
Evidence Grows that Crypto and Federally-Insured Banks Are a Combustible Mixture
The Latest Digital Token Scheme from Hell: New York Fed Teams Up with Citigroup and Sullivan & Cromwell
Just two business days after the crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy and headlines swirled around the world suggesting it had used its crypto token to perpetuate a massive fraud reminiscent of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the New York Fed thought this would be an ideal time to announce it was launching a digital token pilot with the serial fraudster, Citigroup. (See here for the unintelligible, jargonized version from the New York Fed; here for the decrypted translation from CoinDesk; and here for a sampling of Citigroup’s rap sheet.)
The Latest Digital Token Scheme from Hell: New York Fed Teams Up with Citigroup and Sullivan & Cromwell
Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention
Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention (archived)
The Bankman-Frieds’ family foundation in February also committed $5 million to ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, to support reporting focused on pandemic preparedness and biosecurity, including one-third of the grant delivered upfront. The funding has subsidized several staff and articles — including a high-profile story with Vanity Fair about the possibility that covid leaked from a Chinese laboratory, which frustrated some of the Bankman-Frieds’ pandemic advisers who pointed to criticism of its translations of Mandarin Chinese. ProPublica was told last week that the remaining two-thirds of the grant is being paused, a spokesperson confirmed.
What Is Behind Claim Joe Biden ‘Laundered’ Billions in Ukraine Aid via FTX?
What Is Behind Claim Joe Biden ‘Laundered’ Billions in Ukraine Aid via FTX?
Multiple tweets, posted between November 12-15, 2022, claim that Ukraine sent billions of dollars sourced from foreign aid to FTX, which was then sent back to the Democratic party.
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Caught in the tailwinds of the scandal, many onlookers have pointed out the links between FTX and U.S. political parties, particularly the Democrats.
Bankman-Fried’s personal contributions to the Democrats have been public knowledge for some time, and he was the subject of a Politico profile in August 2022 that described him as the “newest megadonor,” but he has also made contributions to Republicans.
He tweeted on November 5, 2022, that he was “a significant donor in both D and R primaries. Supporting constructive candidates across the aisle to prevent pandemics and bring a bipartisan climate to DC. And working with them to support permissionless finance.”
“As part of this, @rsalame7926 [FTX Executive Ryan Salame] and I signed up campaigns to accept crypto; and gave some, including millions to Senate & House Republicans.”
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Earlier this year, it was reported by The Intercept that FTX executive Ryan Salame started American Dream Federal Action, his own super PAC focused solely on electing Republicans, into which he invested millions of dollars.
Salame also contributed to the Republican Senate Leadership Fund and Congressional Leadership Fund. These donations were also reported, as per The Intercept article above, prior to the collapse of FTX.
The underlying implication among the claimants—that the Democratic Party was the sole beneficiary of donations stemming from FTX wealth—is provably false.
Related:
FTX’s SBF has made donations to Republican and Democrat parties
First, if there was any money laundering, both Democrats and Republicans were involved. Second, I don’t believe anything that Hal Turner says because he was an FBI Informant,
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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