Finance & economics | The prop-up job

How deep is the rot in America’s banking industry?

Silicon Valley Bank may be the start of something grimmer

|Washington, DC

Banking is a confidence trick. Financial history is littered with runs, for the straightforward reason that no bank can survive if enough depositors want to be repaid at the same time. The trick, therefore, is to ensure that customers never have cause to whisk away their cash. It is one that bosses at Silicon Valley Bank (svb), formerly America’s 16th-largest lender, failed to perform at a crucial moment.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The prop-up job”

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