Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves
Andrew Ross Sorkinamazon.com
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves
Farley conceded that there are “a lot of underwater bonds in the banking system and that can pose financial stability risks because banks are leveraged institutions. If it’s levered 10 to 1 and you have a 10 percent loss, all the equity is gone.” Which, of course, is exactly what happened to Bear Stearns, which at times was levered 50 to 1, meaning... See more
The BofA $136B Dynamite Stick
The executive said the “cake was already baked well before March 10, when it failed.” Indeed, in the 24 hours before SVB collapsed, Becker told his team the bank had lost $40 billion in deposits in four hours. That’s when a call was set up between Becker, the Fed, the F.D.I.C. and the state of California. “We’re not going to make it,” they were tol... See more
Confessions of a Former SVB Executive
With no way to cover their shorts, firms up and down Wall Street faced bankruptcy, as did the banks who had been financing their positions; Harriman had no choice but to back off the fight, so Morgan and Schiff could unwind their positions and forestall a crash.
Charles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
In effect, SVB didn’t have the technological infrastructure to handle the influx of deposits that came into it during the pandemic, nor the investment skill to manage all that new money. It took what appeared to be a safe route of investing in long-dated Treasuries but failed to recognize that in a rising interest rate environment they would lose v... See more