What A Day: Rattle Hymn of First Republic

More bank instability? In this economy??
 

• Federal regulators working in conjunction with multiple Wall Street lending giants rushed to finalize a plan to stop the bleeding at First Republic Bank and stave off public fears of a 2008 repeat today. Eleven major U.S. banks pledged to infuse $30 billion into First Republic, to stabilize the market after the ripple effects from the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures rattled smaller and regional banks. Regional bank stocks initially fell today but reversed course after reports of the deposit plan became public. 
   

• In a joint statement, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the intervention from the group of large banks “is most welcome, and demonstrates the resilience of the banking system.” Not exactly how I would put it, but sure. Yellen worked closely on the emergency measure with the major bank CEOs and industry regulators, as well as with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard. 
   

• Yellen also testified at a Senate Banking Committee hearing and defended the Federal government’s response to the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank. She faced questioning from members of both parties on the committee and asserted that the U.S. banking system is sound and that Americans can move forward with the confidence that their deposits are safe. However, she clarified that the emergency actions taken by the government with SVB and Signature bank should not be the industry expectation for all deposits. (I’m sure that’s their takeaway too, most definitely.) 

Yellen and other heads of America’s regulatory institutions are in the hot seat for the time being, but Republicans are, as usual, following their own deranged script. 
 

• Under questioning from Republicans on the committee, who are feigning outrage corporate malfeasance, Yellen testified that a bank would only receive the kind of emergency assistance seen by SVB and Signature Bank if supermajorities of the boards of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and Yellen “in consultation with the president, determine that the failure to protect uninsured  depositors would create systemic risk and significant economic and financial consequences.” The decision to intervene with SVB and Signature was necessary, Yellen said, because “the chances of contagion that other banks might be regarded as unsound and suffer runs, seemed extremely high,” and the consequences of such conditions would be swift and very serious. (Sounds like the tech bros tweeting in ALL CAPS about the apocalypse that would ensue if they didn’t get a bailout had their intended effect.)
   

• Republicans are, of course, also using this opportunity to pin the largest banking failure since 2008 on their favorite boogeyman: “wokeness.” Right-wing trolls on social media and their king, Tucker Carlson, claimed that SVB’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies “distracted” them from, you know, banking and caused the crash. Yes, this is an argument people are trying to make. Not because of poor investment and risky strategies that depleted their cash stores and made them insolvent in the face of aggressive withdrawals, because of wokeness. Never mind that their executive team is, like most banks, is all White and mostly male! Obviously, there’s no evidence to support these claims, and it was a pretty classic run on the bank, spearheaded by the scourge of wokeness himself, Peter Thiel. 

Even conservative economists and analysts agree that the recent spate of bank failures stemmed from bank mismanagement and the recent financial woes of SVB’s tech and startup client base. But trying to misdirect public attention serves their dual purpose of furthering their hollow culture war while fending off the kinds of regulation that would prevent something similar from happening in the future. Great stuff!!

Move over, George Santos! There’s a new Republican fraudster in the House. Freshman Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) started a GoFundMe years ago, supposedly to raise money for a children’s burial ground, using an image of a stillborn baby on the page, and imploring “Help us help other families.” The page promised a “burial garden” featuring “a life-size statue of Jesus watching over the children” along with benches where families could sit. He raised almost $25,000. GoFundMe confirmed that Ogles received the money, but the park doesn’t exist, and he won’t say where the money has gone. In fact, he has patently refused to say what he did with the money, and is now naturally portraying himself as the victim, and released a statement saying that people should believe him that he used the money for the appropriate purposes, despite offering no proof.

Special grand jurors in Fulton County, GA, reportedly heard a third recording of a phone call disgraced former president Donald Trump made to a Georgia election official as he tried to overturn his 2020 loss in the state. 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Syria recognizes the territory of Ukraine the Kremlin has unlawfully annexed as Russian, and that Syria would welcome expanding Russia’s military presence there. Dictators are gonna be dictators, I guess! 

The Biden administration has called for TikTok’s Chinese ownership to sell the app or face a possible ban, a significant shift for the White House as it moves to address national security concerns about the app. 

Despite the Kremlin’s denials, the Pentagon released a video of a Russian jet dumping fuel on the U.S. drone that was taken down over the Black Sea earlier this week. 

French Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne used a special legislative procedure to advance an unpopular pensions bill through the French National Assembly without a vote, spurring calls for her resignation from the country’s parliament. 

Everyone’s favorite spiritual girlboss from the 2020 Democratic primary and Joe Biden’s sole 2024 challenger Marianne Williamson has been accused by former campaign staffers of abusive treatment replete with “foaming, spitting rage.” My third eye did not see this coming!

Unions representing more than one-million British health-care workers, such as nurses and paramedics, reached a deal Thursday to pause months of strikes, just days after U.K. treasury chief Jeremy Hunt proposed a budget that contemplates paying them a lump-sum bonus this year, and higher compensation next year. Strikes will be halted while members of the union rank-and-file vote on whether to accept the offer, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (whose personal wealth is greater than the Royal Family’s) has also endorsed. Thanks for your input, Rishi. The largest trade union in the country, Unite, lambasted the U.K. government for months of “dither and delay” that caused unnecessary hardships to staff and patients and said it would not recommend the deal, but that it supports members voting on it. Wages lagging record inflation is not limited to the health-care sector. Tens of thousands of teachers, civil servants, and workers in London’s subway system all walked off the job Wednesday. U.K. Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the department would look for cost savings and the funding for higher wages would ultimately be up to the Treasury, and would not come at the expense of patients. Imagine that!

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Two reproductive health networks, Trust Women and Whole Women’s Health, announced that they will not immediately stop prescribing mifepristone if the Trump-appointed federal judge rules to suspend or invalidate its FDA approval. 

North Dakota’s state Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to block a statewide abortion ban, saying that the state’s constitution protects abortion rights in some situations, meaning that the procedure remains legal in the Roughrider State. 

New polls show that 21 percent of Fox News viewers place less trust in the network since the revelations from the Dominion lawsuit, and 13 percent no longer believe the election was stolen after reading the leaked texts from Fox hosts and executives. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) reportedly once ate pudding with his fingers on a plane. Move over, Amy Klobuchar’s salad comb. 

Graduate Students at the University of Chicago won their election to unionize by a landslide.