Bank Failures, COVID Crisis, and Hope For Yemen

The big news this week was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history and the largest since the 2008 Subprime Mortgage Crisis.

On Wednesday, the bank, which held approximately $175 billion in customer deposits, announced that it needed $2 billion to shore up its balance sheet in the wake of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. The announcement prompted a bank run by venture capital and by Friday, federal regulators had shuttered the bank, seizing its deposits.

Predictably, in the wake of the collapse, venture capitalists and libertarians were scrambling, demanding the government intervene with a bailout.

“Where is Powell? Where is Yellen?” demanded Callin founder David Sacks, the vice chairman of Craft Ventures. “Stop this crisis NOW.”

The bleating drew ridicule from progressives who pointed out that many of the people demanding a bailout had publicly opposed the forgiveness of student loan debt. Sacks, for example, had characterized the Biden administration’s limited relief proposal as “a trillion-dollar giveaway with zero reform of the underlying system” in August.

But behind the gotchas, however, was a familiar pattern that has come to define the American system: deregulation fueling a crisis. As THE INTERCEPT’s Ken Klippenstein reported, SVB lobbyists had successfully won the rollback of banking regulations imposed in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Read the full story here:

SVB’s lobbying efforts managed to exempt banks like SVB “from more stringent regulations, including stress tests aimed at uncovering the type of weaknesses that led to the bank’s implosion Friday.” Klippenstein further reported that “Two of the bank’s top lobbyists previously served as senior staffers for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who himself pushed for the repeal of significant pieces of the landmark Wall Street reform legislation known as Dodd-Frank.”

For more on the collapse, check out THE AMERICAN PROSPECT’s examination of the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes and their impact on banks.

With that, please enjoy this week’s selection of top stories from OptOut participating outlets.

COVID-19 NEWS

This week, yours truly wrote a piece for IMPORTANT CONTEXT and SLUDGE about Pfizer’s lobbying last year to protect its intellectual property rights amid a global debate over how best to improve access to lifesaving COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines.

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,862 American COVID deaths for the seven-day period ending March 8, pandemic relief is ending around the country. The lapse in assistance has dire implications for many medically needy Americans. STATES NEWSROOM had a story this week about it.

The TEXAS OBSERVER published a similar story about the millions of Texans who stand to lose their health insurance coverage thanks to the impending end of the COVID emergency declaration.

ANTI-TRANS HATE

Arkansas Republicans took a big step this week toward attacking trans-affirming care. A bill opening the door to malpractice suits against doctors who provide such care to minors made its way to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ desk. The ARKANSAS ADVOCATE had the story.

Meanwhile, in Iowa, a bill banning trans-affirming care for minors made its way to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk. IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH covered the legislation.

Ohio is working to ban trans girls from participating in team sports. THE BUCKEYE FLAME covered the start of public testimony this week for the legislation.

At the national level, Republicans are also trying to ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports, STATES NEWSROOM reported this week.

AMERICAN ATROCITIES

THE AMERICAN PROSPECT released a solid write-up this week about the humanitarian situation in Yemen, the de facto ceasefire, and why the U.S. must withdraw controversial support for Saudi Arabia’s brutal military efforts in the country.

THE MAJORITY REPORT did an important segment this week on the prevalence of child labor in the U.S.

The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

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