Christopher MimsMar 14, 2023

I'm feeling disagreeable so here goes:

I think the narrative that "Silicon Valley broke its own bank and it's another example of how tech is broken" is complete hokum, and exonerates the actual villains here.

Bank runs happen all the time.

They are what happen when you have insufficient bank regulation.

The bipartisan bill of 2018 that let SVB dodge good banking rules is the actual problem here.

This is not a tech issue, it's a banking one.

Show threadChris HansonMar 14, 2023
@mimsical It’s both; tech-adjacent finance assholes (VCs and other hangers-on who can’t do the work but want to own the result) that pushed for the specific deregulation for SVB then, who pushed SVB to take unreasonable risks, who forced their portfolio companies to use SVB for “synergy” (leverage), and then induced the run last week.
Show threadChris Hanson
@mimsical Of course, one can argue that VCs aren’t tech (they’re the ultimate “I’m with those folks!” jackasses) but they present themselves to the rest of the world as the titans of tech so tech gets blamed.
Mar 14, 2023 at 10:26pmIceCubesApp