The Silicon Valley Bank case raises important regulatory questions, but the right sees it as another culture clash.
While the stock markets are rocked by the bankruptcy of the 16th largest bank in the United States, the American right is pursuing petty politics, blaming its favorite seven o’clock man for all the ills in the world: “wokism”.
It is ridiculous. The fact that this bank was open to diversity and invested in environmentally conscious sectors has nothing to do with its failure.
deregulation
Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) setbacks can largely be explained by the lure of short-term profits by its managers, who tolerated much higher risks than sound regulation would have imposed on them.
If we insist on looking for ideological causes of this mess, we must not point the finger at environmental and social concerns or inclusive management, but at the ideological mantra of the right that makes deregulation the universal solution to all problems.
In 2018, the Trump administration eased controls on banking risk-taking in the casino with its customers’ deposits, introduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which officials at SVB.
Not very bright capitalists
Silicon Valley Bank was popular with high-tech companies, an industry where risk is ever-present.
Investigations will determine the exact reasons behind the panic among its depositors.
Most analysts believe SVB executives have taken more risks than bank prudence would have required, paying themselves hefty bonuses even as losses threatened.
In short, the SVB’s demise can be explained more by its leaders behaving like capitalists hungry for short-term gains than by the “distraction” caused by the cultural shift affecting all organizations.
politics everywhere
That’s not stopping Fox News commentators and Republican politicians from blaming the all-purpose bogeyman that has become “wokism,” a term they generally can’t define.
Doesn’t matter. Since it is impossible to question the policies that have lined the pockets of those pulling the strings of the “populist” Republican Party, it is far easier to blame this new universal scapegoat for all the ills that haunt the good people.
Every aspiring Republican, including Ron DeSantis, has recognized that putting the fog of the culture war at the forefront of all issues allows their constituents to swallow policies that run counter to their interests.
Even Vladimir Putin is trying to seduce the American right by proclaiming that he is fighting “wokism” in Ukraine.
Like international security, the issue of banking system stability is too serious for this kind of petty politics to be pursued on its back.
