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You might not be familiar with this key component of the SVB collapse story: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/svb-collaps-peter-thiel-s-role-scrutinized-as
by rexreed 4y ago
You might not be familiar with this key component of the SVB collapse story: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/svb-collaps-peter-thiel-s-role-scrutinized-as-spark-of-bank-run/ar-AA18zMlF https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/svb-collaps-peter-thie...
It does seem that VCs are not just a convenient scapegoat, but a big part of the story.
- twblalock 4y agoThe first person to pull money out of a failing bank is always going to get blamed, but they didn't do anything different than the others who pulled money. What was Thiel supposed to do, keep quiet about the problems at the bank and hope nobody else noticed? Then some other guy can be first to withdraw and take the blame, while Thiel gets soaked? Or maybe nothing happens, and the bank takes on even more deposits and fails even more spectacularly a year from now, and then people blame Thiel because he knew back in 2023 and didn't tell anyone?
- rexreed 4y agoI'm fairly certain that's how a bank run operates, and what we have here is a bank run. Each individual person who withdraws isn't to blame, but it's the collective actions that cause the problem. In fact, all that is needed to cause a bank run is just the idea / notion of instability. Once it gets into people's heads that something is unstable, it will be made to be so, even if all that was needed was calmness. Probably hitting the panic button wasn't the best move.
- twblalock 4y agoOk, what would you do if you were a board member of a number of companies and you found out that the bank they were using was financially unsound and couldn't process normal withdrawals?