In the space of just a few days two major US banks collapsed and were shuttered, sowing panic and uncertainty in the financial markets. The first bank was the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 2nd-largest bank failure in US history, and the 2nd bank failure was that of Signature Bank. Other regional banks have since also closed. Was it poor judgement on the part of the banks or is this the start of an engineered failure of the banking system in the West? These events are not isolated, but instead have broader implications. This is an evolving story. We will have a look at the reasons for the failure of SVB here and what lies ahead for the West’s banking systems in the immediate future. Continue reading “The Silicon Valley Bank collapse: the beginning of the end?”