Not all banks are created equal. Some bank failures,
like those in 2008, have the power to paralyze the entire global economy, and others, like the
ones we're seeing now, are simply painful illustrations of what happens
when avarice is exposed.
"This was NOT a systemic event," the famed short-seller Jim Chanos, the founder of Chanos & Company, told me. "This was a duration-mismatch problem.
It only affects a few really dumb, greedy institutions." Dumb because they were run by bankers who failed to do the business of banking or manage risk.
Greedy because the bankers behaved that way in order to make as much money as they could as fast as they could.
The pandemic era was a boom time for the market, and these are the kinds of mistakes that come to light as
boom times end.
When the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to 4.75% from 0% over the course of a year — a blink of an eye in the world of monetary policy — the rules of money changed.
The speed of the shift means
markets are still processing it, sharply repricing every aspect of our financial lives. Some assets — cryptocurrencies, startups, investment funds, and even banks —
will not survive this violent transition.
But other investors, the kind of Wall Street
sharks who thrive on uncertainty, stand to make a killing.
The banking crisis could send the stock market into chaos. The Wall Street investing sharks who thrive on uncertainty are ready to make a killing.
www.businessinsider.com
