Despite endless promises from Washington DC that there would never be another bank bailout, the Biden Administration bailed out Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) by removing the $250,000 cap on deposit insurance. Then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen added that in the future, only banks that posed SYSTEMIC RISK to the economy will be bailed out. Translation: only the big four Too Big To Fail (TBTF) banks will be bailed out. Meaning that the Biden Administration prefers big banks to community banks. “Middle-class Joe” loves BIG Pharma, BIG defense, BIG tech, BIG media and now BIG banks. He should rename himself “Big Joe” Biden for the 2024 Presidential election.
Of course, we are aware of The Fed’s about face on shrinking their balance sheet (green line). While Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate has now declined below 7% to 6.97%, it has only fallen -15 basis points since the recent peak of 7.12% on 3/2/2023 when the 10-year Treasury yield was 4.056%. So, the 10-year Treasury yield has fallen -62.7 basis points since 3/2/2023 while the 30-year mortgage rate dropped only -15 basis points.
On the European banking front, Credit Suisse is kaput and both Swiss Bank and Deutsche Bank are considering buying the assets of Credit Suisse. In other words, MORE bank consolidation.
Here is a chart of US bank consideration as of 2009 with 37 banks in 1990 shriveling to 4 mega, TBTF banks in 2009 that remain today. But will the now unprotected community and local banks be absorbed into the 4 superbanks? Time will tell, but if history is repeated, the answer is yes.
The KBW bank index continued to fall despite the bailouts of SVB and Signature Banks. But at least total returns on Treasuries and MBS that banks hold increased with the return of QE!
Yellen and Biden compete for the Knucklehead Of The Century Award. While not as sloppy as the sudden Afghanistan withdrawal, bailing out the Silicon Valley elites will not end well.
