SVB failed because it was a perfect example of greedy capitalism. They took risks, they exploited GOP-led deregulation, and they gambled ineptly with other people's money. The GOP, their obscenely wealthy donors and their fawning sold-out servants, will do or say anything to make it look like it wasn't what it was; greedy capitalism in action. If they could, they would blame it on trans people, or whoever is the right-wing scapegoat of the day. This was greed, plain and simple. Greedy bankers bought off politicians, mostly republicans but others, like Synema, to weaken regulations put in place to prevent another financial meltdown. The bribes paid off, they made a fortune, got their bonuses, and like the last time, will probably not pay a price for this travesty! Our system continues to serve the wealthiest and pillage the rest of us, and that is exactly how the GOP and their donors want it!

Silicon Valley Bank didn't fail because it's "woke" https://link.motherjones.com/view/5eb477beb01fd7378a70b24cicnru.1jsi/da299f9e

#GreedKills
#GreedKillsTheEconomy
#GreedKillsDemocracy
#GOPLovesTheGreedy

"Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday amid a bank run. The reasons are complex, even for those well-versed in the jargon of finance. (I am not.) The gist is that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in hopes of taming inflation. That requires banks to pay higher rates on their deposits. But since SVB's assets (like loans) were issued at the lower rates, they earn far less. At the same time, the higher rates from the Fed caused Treasury bonds to go down in value. SVB over-diversified on Treasury bonds and had to sell them at a lower value, leaving the bank without enough capital, as Michael Hitzlik explained in the Los Angeles Times.

So, you can blame increased interest rates. You can blame deregulation for allowing SVB to act as more of an investment tool than a bank, which made it particularly susceptible to a bank run. You can blame the very idea that this is how financialized capitalism works. You can even maybe blame Peter Thiel? Or, if you choose not to attempt to understand what happened, you can blame some DEI programs and say the word "woke" a lot.

"I mean, this bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. "I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission." The idea, as a former Trump economist said on Fox News, is that SVB over-invested in green-energy products, leading to its doom.

"SVB is what happens when you push a leftist/woke ideology and have that take precedent over common sense business practices," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, not mentioning the role his father played in loosening bank regulations.

Investor Andy Kessler, in a Wall Street Journal opinion column, went so far as to suggest that SVB's focus on diversity and inclusion was somehow responsible for the bank's collapse:

SVB was regulated like a bank but looked more like a money-market fund. Then there’s this: In its proxy statement, SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have “1 Black,” “1 LGBTQ+” and “2 Veterans.” I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.

This is, of course, nonsense. As my colleague Michael Mechanic explained in a newsletter last week, American conservatives (and some Democrats) have been loath to accept any whiff of progressivism in our financial institutions. That's why the Senate blocked a Labor Department rule that would have allowed retirement fund managers to let clients invest in ESG funds—those that consider environmental and social factors. And it's also why they choose to focus not on Silicon Valley greed or lax government regulations, but on the bank's stated support of LGBTQ causes.

Do you think Bear Stearns was "distracted by diversity demands"? Lehman Brothers? Bailey Building and Loan from It's a Wonderful Life? Give me a break."

No executive, board of director, or shareholder of Norfolk Southern will be held accountable. They know this and now are just trying to minimize PR fallout and lawsuits that could cost them money. They are all about the profit and greed. They don't care about communities, workers, the environment or our country. They only care about their wallets. They're dumping toxins, trying to buy off potential law suits, all on top of the shaving of their workforce, lack of investment in equipment and safety and the continued stock buybacks to boost executive, board and shareholder wealthy and satisfy their ravenous greed. In other words, a model American corporation.

Norfolk Southern Secretly Dumps Toxins https://politicususa.substack.com/p/norfolk-southern-secretly-dumps-toxins

#GreedKills
#GreedBribes
#GreedLies
#GOPLovesTheGreedy

"In what figuratively would be the dark of night, given that they notified no officials, Norfolk Southern began on Wednesday to dump toxic materials from their train derailment into Wayne County.
...
“more than 218,000 gallons of toxic liquid waste was on its way to the county and some had already arrived,” WXYZ reported.

“Officials said they were ‘blindsided’ and weren't informed of the waste transport.”
...
People Are Being Sandbagged
"1.8 million people are being sandbagged. Vinyl chloride is a serious carcinogen and something we should have heard about sooner. The landfill taking the deep well injections is a facility cited many times and shut down in the past,” Evans said. "Just because they are licensed, we have to ask why were these facilities cited in the past for a number of violations? Any of us that live and breathe are at risk."

Some of the contaminated soil from the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine was to be moved via truck to a disposal site in Belleville. Toxic materials that left Ohio on Wednesday were being sent to Van Buren Township and Belleville, Michigan.
...
It’s Not Just Michigan
Michigan isn’t alone. Texas and Ohio are other states tagged to get dumped on even more.
...
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said state environmental officials made a "criminal referral" into the toxic train derailment. A lawsuit filed by two Pennsylvanians is demanding Norfolk Southern pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile radius of the derailment, which happened very close to the state border.

$7.5 Billion in Corporate Greed
Norfolk Southern offered residents in East Palestine $1,000.00 checks, which a lawyer warned might be used to as “a sly way of getting these poor folks to waive any future claims against NS.”

Weeks later, Norfolk Southern will now spend $6.5 million to help those impacted by their toxic train derailment in East Palestine. How generous!

But wait. “But in a plan released earlier this year, the company said it’s planning to spend more than a thousand times that amount — $7.5 billion — to repurchase its own shares in order to benefit its shareholders,” CNN reported.

$7.5 billion to benefit shareholders. More than a thousand times the amount they’re giving to the people into whose soil, water, and air they’ve released toxic chemicals.

Cutting Employees While Pocketing Obscene Money
That’s nothing new for Norfolk Southern. The same company cut over 9,600 jobs since 2002. In that same period they gave shareholders 4,500% more money, according to a More Perfect Union.

“The root causes of this wreck,” Railroad Workers United said in a statement released days after the derailment, “are the same ones that have been singled out repeatedly, associated with the hedge fund initiated operating model known as “Precision Scheduled Railroading.”

“They cut their workforce to barebones, and now they’re paying the price for it because the wheels are falling off the train,” Clyde Whitaker of the Sheet Metal Rail Transportation Union told More Perfect Union shortly after the Ohio disaster.

These same people who dumped over 9,600 people from their payroll so they could pocket more money for shareholders needed a place to dump the toxic soil and water from the site in East Palestine."