Bank on it

open thread_51.jpg

So three banks have failed over the weekend and 28 more have suspended trading indefinitely. Charles Schwab took a 20% hit today and the DOW dropped to 31,800.
But O'Joe assures us all is under control and taxpayer monies are not going to be used to bail out Silicone Valley Bank.
Whew! That was a close one. He We are in good hands.
Why do I keep thinking of dominoes?
Have been stocking up on seed packets and starter medium along with organic fertilizers and soil amendments in anticipation of a run on them.
I had trouble finding high output T5 growlight bulbs as Sunblaze went out of business and had to order them. It took about two weeks to get them, so I bought four extras just to have on hand. The bulbs I replaced were at least 12 years old and you don't notice the dimming of them until they are replaced with new ones. Wow, what a difference. It explains why last years seedling come up so slowly and took forever to mature enough to transplant.
I bought a second four bulb fixture (the last one they had) to double my output of seedlings and to stagger my crops in addition to direct sowing when (or if) the weather warms enough.
Had more snow a week ago and the temps hang around the high 30s to the low 40s and overcast most of the time.
And it's not much better in California where we normally would be returning from this time of year. We had planned on making a big swing down through Utah, Arizona, and up the California coast, taking about a months break away from the dreary PNW.
Rainbirds we hoped to be.
But the Southwest took a big hit this year and traveling to worse weather than at home was not what we had in mind. To late in the year to go now.
So we will pour ourselves into preparing for the growing season.
The Atlantic Northeast has had and is continuing to have some exceptionally bad weather this year, but it happens every 100,000 years or so, just normal amirite? Who can forget the winter of 97,977 BC? Pretty brutal, huh?
I mean really, man can pollute rivers enough to catch fire, fill the oceans with microplastics, put a man on the moon, build machines that travel into interstellar space, but will never be able to effect the air we breath.
Snark off.
So, done venting. How's everybody weathering the weather?
It's an open thread.

Share
up
15 users have voted.

Comments

usefewersyllables's picture

flap my arms and fly to the moon, too.

"No taxpayer money?". As if. The oligarchs, they want their precioussssss.

Gotta pay the vig. "Nice little economy you got there- it'd be a shame if anything happened to it...".

up
9 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Had 84 degrees in February. Today at 9:00 it was 44 degrees. Want to start a garden. Cleaned up almost all of my former goat pen. I keep my compost back there. Something has been eating it. I believe it is a deer. Have to replace a fence post to keep it out before I plant anything.

up
11 users have voted.

it's because I've been dealing with a serious attack on my finances. And it isn't some nigerian prince wanting cash. It's a very sophisticated system.

I won't go into the details of the attack, nor will I relate how I dealt with it. My bank was very much involved and without their checks and balances and my paranoia it could have been very bad.

The key was malware that had contaminated Chrome. The contamination involved a link inserted into Chrome that appears valid but isn't. Something like... check your credit rating button. The malware intercepts the valid link and does some nasty then passes off to a valid function. In order for this to work the bad guy has to know the web page. Over the last few weeks I had been noticing some anomalies in the Chrome operation, repainting a screen when it wsn't necessary, etc. Basically the malware was intercepting and waiting for me to go to my bank account.

The key to the thing was email. What very much looks very valid... like a credit monitoring company that I would usually check alerting me to a breach. Ie, log in and check your account or just use our button and get in without the extra step. BTW, that button works. It just shoves the intercept into chrome first.

In order to work that email would have to know what agency I use and what bank I use. It would also have to know what email I use, etc. My wife gets them also, even tho she has different accounts and different email user ids.

I just got another one late yesterday but this time I thought first... ie, the only way an authorized user can be added to my bank accounts is by filling out a form with ID in front of a manager at a branch location. It cannot be done online.

Getting pretty scary these days.

up
14 users have voted.

@exindy from a credit card account I paid off and closed last month.
Strange times, indeed!

up
6 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp My wife and I are running cash mode right now. I only have one business that uses autopay and it isn't due for a while. We have always had text alerts set on all of our accounts when any activity occurs.

I saw an article earlier that apparently the money movement app on phones isn't that secure. Good thing I don't use it.

Looks like we are on our own and that we can't expect any support from our gov't. Funny, I would think that this would be an essential infrastructure. Then again, I thought railroads were too.

up
9 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@exindy
I got scammed on a real looking USPS (P.O.) and had to cancel my credit card.
Multiple problems ensued as refunds for my $100 reserve on a Ford and Tesla electric truck were on that card.
I'm dreading the complicated process of getting that $200 back. It's all done online.
How do you tell an automated system you have a new credit card number account to refund to?

up
5 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

smiley7's picture

"Glass-Steagall, Glass-Steagall, Glass-Steagall!" How many times have i written about Glass-Steagall over the past two decades, As most of you know, one of Clinton and the Third Way's largest mistakes. For sanity's sake just re-adopt the damn act and end this combo of commercial and investment banking once and for all.

Hapy to see you are still gardening and hope you've been well.

up
14 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@smiley7
chipping away the regs for decades a little at a time. Even the SVB instigated a change just a short while before collapse.
We desperately need regime change in America.
Thanks for the post.

up
10 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 that involved a couple of regulation "adjustments". I'm pretty sure the first one was that bank branches were no longer bound by state lines, that banks were exempt(?) from the commerce clause.

Following that or linked was that the rules would apply that were included in the charter, eg, New Jersey, South Dakota. So much for usury laws.

Then add in the monopolization and we, the people, are screwed. I bet if we turned over a rock we'd see Brandon's face.

Then again my memory might be total crap.

up
5 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7

interests do not coincide with ours. From a certain perspective it is arguably one of their greatest victories.

As most of you know, one of Clinton and the Third Way's largest mistakes.

be well and have a good one

up
8 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

depositors, where is the incentive for the banksters to stop their massive fraud? Won't that incentivize them to invent new and exciting fraudulent practices?

up
9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

usefewersyllables's picture

@on the cusp

exactly that, writ large, on a daily basis now. The camel's nose has long since come into the tent, and that SOB is laying down on top of us even as we speak.

up
7 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

@usefewersyllables

be well and have a good one

up
3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

earthling1's picture

@on the cusp
are already using depositors money for free, giving out loans @ 10-12% interest and credit cards @ up to 29%.
It's a complete fraud, but the American Plankton just eat it up.
It is the depositors who ultimately fund the FDIC through the banks via low or no interest on checking and savings accounts.
Have a great day.

up
6 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 transaction fees.
Another thing that restricts my use of my money is the limit on debit card use per day. I can still write a check for larger purchases, but not use the debit card.
I did have Macy's refuse a check, demand a credit card. I had written a check in one department, then shopped at another on a different floor. They said I had exceeded their limit, forced me to purchase the merchandise on a credit card.

up
7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

It was more a crisis of confidence than anything else. Old fashioned run on the banks.

That said, it shouldn't be happening. It's the same ol same ol. They rolled back Dodd Frank, and it was cowboy time at banking.

DK has been all the way down since the morning. It seemed to have hit it's files first and front page that you see last. My first thought is that maybe all of Markos' companies were banking at SVB, or his server company was. Maybe just malware.

up
3 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

...is that I saw someone say this was part of a plot (or at least is a perfect crisis to exploit) to destroy SMALL banks/credit unions (I bank with a credit-union, and that's been a much-needed vent for personal terror over this issue).

Would anyone know more details about this?

up
4 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat

The huge derivative exposure in banking is a concern. You can explore bank exposures at particular institutions HERE. Coupled with info on assets and total deposits one might be able to arrive on some sort of overall assessment of risk, but that is certainly well beyond my capabilities.

The largest banks (aka too big to fail) have the comfort of previously being bailed out, have huge derivative risk but the expectation of more bailouts. Smaller banks (the runts) will likely be culled in any major outbreak of ‘runs’, since their cash reserves are quite small relative to total deposits.

Our economy has become a complete act of faith. ‘In God We Trust’? WTF is that even supposed to mean?

up
5 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

usefewersyllables's picture

@ovals49

all others bring cash...

up
3 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
at least until one needs a shopping cart full of it to buy a weeks worth of beans and rice.

I own a single one dollar ‘Greenback’ Silver Certificate, “Payable to the Bearer on demand.” in the form of a Silver Dollar. Nowhere on the bill is any mention of God or Trust.

The civil War era Republicans eschewed banks charging interest on their loans and believed in balanced budgets. How far we have come!

up
4 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

TheOtherMaven's picture

@ovals49

trouble of sending out an email explaining why they are not at risk in the present "crisis" (no derivatives, healthy reserves, healthy cashflow). The other one is mum (and has been found fairly high on the list of derivatives exposure - thinking about changing that one).

up
3 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@ovals49 ...SCARYRUSSIABAD!!!

As for why that's still on there, I can only guess (BUT as long as we're still pretending Vladimir Putin is the Author of All Hate, maybe now'd actually be a good time to demand it come off as a patriotic display of how goshdarned InclusionDiversity™ America is now?).

Thanks for the link, at any rate - but it's not too useful if I can't FIND my bank on there; be nice if it had a "Sort By Name" option.
Am I to understand, then, that none among that long, long segment with "$0" in derivatives need worry about The Current Thing?

Also, is that really what's happening now? ANOTHER bailout? Are there any riots (or better yet, pinpoint-precision acts of intelligently-targeted terrorism) scheduled?

up
3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat
I mostly use Brave but fall back to Safari for web sites that blocks Brave’s add-blockers. Both browsers have a ‘search on page’ function, much like word processing software.

Yeah, that long list of banks is way too big to scroll and eyeball scan!

up
1 user has voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

something like financial ‘Russian roulette’. It’s always a good idea to use known links (I.e. bookmarks) to access any known financial or commercial businesses that I conduct business with, rather than clicking on the ‘convenient’ button in an email. Scammers have become rather good at designing imposter emails.

However, the biggest scam operation in the US is currently being run by our own government. One can no longer bite one’s gold coins to confirm the reality of their intrinsic value. Fiat currencies are faith-based facsimiles of a medium of exchange. The digital printing presses are run whenever it is convenient for government to pay an obligation to a creditor or fund budget shortfalls or deal with emergencies. The real scam isn’t so much the taxes that government impose on the population, rather it is the the devaluation of the fiat currency through deficit budgets and unfettered growth of the money supply.

Runs on banks happen when the public begins to realize that all of their savings are backed by nothing but their misplaced trust in an imaginary symbol of value that a reckless government created and the banks subsequently abused.

Expect the angry mobs to be blamed rather than those actually responsible.

up
7 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

usefewersyllables's picture

@ovals49

I'm glad that I'm old, childfree, and assetless. We've already lost pretty much everything other than our lives, and I'm only now starting to realize that that has actually been a blessing of sorts.

If I was still under the illusion that I could build a financial castle in the sky to leave to my offspring, I'd be shitting bricks right now. I really do feel for those of you who are still fighting that fight, and I don't say that with any cynicism or irony at all. It has to seriously suck to still feel as if you are in the game, and have any control over the outcome..

up
7 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@ovals49 One moment of distraction, whatever. My fault. Totally. Got complacent and paid in embarassment and inconvenience. I used to pride myself on being able to "feel" things which were not as they seemed. Pride goeth before a fall.

I agree with you on the fiat currency. The fed got way ahead of themselves, dancing in the booming investment business, converting pretend abstract(?) value into hard cash. For example, how much was the warehousing and distribution system in Sears actually worth? Moneywise? Maybe some buildings, some land, etc. But its real value was the people that made it work, the expertise, the loyalty, the dedication. What is that worth?

The whole business school model puts a dollar value on those things and then plays with the monopoly money. All of a sudden our economy has to make good when the pink slip is handed over between corporations. And so it just prints some more. GDP, hooray! And it gets even worse when the takeover uses a loan against the company that's being stolen to fund the theft.

I read a good article a few years back that I agreed with. Unfortunately it's in the Guardian but there's truth to it.

Why we should bulldoze the business school

There are 13,000 business schools on Earth. That’s 13,000 too many. And I should know – I’ve taught in them for 20 years
by Martin Parker

Visit the average university campus and it is likely that the newest and most ostentatious building will be occupied by the business school. The business school has the best building because it makes the biggest profits (or, euphemistically, “contribution” or “surplus”) – as you might expect, from a form of knowledge that teaches people how to make profits.

Business schools have huge influence, yet they are also widely regarded to be intellectually fraudulent places, fostering a culture of short-termism and greed. (There is a whole genre of jokes about what MBA – Master of Business Administration – really stands for: “Mediocre But Arrogant”, “Management by Accident”, “More Bad Advice”, “Master Bullshit Artist” and so on.) Critics of business schools come in many shapes and sizes: employers complain that graduates lack practical skills, conservative voices scorn the arriviste MBA, Europeans moan about Americanisation, radicals wail about the concentration of power in the hands of the running dogs of capital. Since 2008, many commentators have also suggested that business schools were complicit in producing the crash.

Having taught in business schools for 20 years, I have come to believe that the best solution to these problems is to shut down business schools altogether. This is not a typical view among my colleagues. Even so, it is remarkable just how much criticism of business schools over the past decade has come from inside the schools themselves. Many business school professors, particularly in north America, have argued that their institutions have gone horribly astray. B-schools have been corrupted, they say, by deans following the money, teachers giving the punters what they want, researchers pumping out paint-by-numbers papers for journals that no one reads and students expecting a qualification in return for their cash (or, more likely, their parents’ cash). At the end of it all, most business-school graduates won’t become high-level managers anyway, just precarious cubicle drones in anonymous office blocks.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/27/bulldoze-the-business-school

And this current "crisis"... print more money to cover the fake value.

up
7 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@exindy

The local college (Shenandoah University) opened a business school a few years ago that they, at the time, named for Harry Flood Byrd, Jr. (a fairly toxic chip off the old Dixiecrat block). Couple of years later Byrd died, and in hardly any time at all the college had scraped his name off and substituted their own.

I can't say which was tackier - putting his name on in the first place, or removing it to be "politically correct".

up
4 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

usefewersyllables's picture

@exindy

from the rooftops.

Your basic MBA, on the hoof.

up
3 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.