A Positive and Hopeful Sign in the Banking Crisis

Throughout the time during which Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were going under, U.S. officials were steadfastly assuring the American people that the U.S. banking system “remains sound and resilient.” The purpose of the assurances was to encourage people not to withdraw or transfer their deposits from smaller, regional banks.

An article at CNN Business this past Saturday pointed out that despite those repeated assurances, “Deposits at small US banks dropped by a record amount following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, data released on Friday by the Federal Reserve showed. Deposits at small banks fell $119 billion to $5.46 trillion in the week ended March 15, which was more than twice the previous record drop and the biggest decline as a percent of overall deposits since the week ended March 16, 2007.”

In other words, many American depositors obviously did not believe all those assurances about the “soundness and resiliency” of the banking system. They obviously believed that U.S. officials could be lying to them. They didn’t want to take a chance on that possibility and lose their money.

And let’s face it: If the banking system is not, in fact, “sound and resilient,” there is no possibility that U.S. officials would tell the truth to the American people. They would lie in order to encourage people from withdrawing their money from banks.

I consider the withdrawal or transfer of those deposits in the face of all those assurances of the “soundness and resiliency” of the banking system to be a very positive and hopeful sign. It indicates that perhaps a large number of Americans are no longer sheeplings that place their blind trust in the fox.

Now, if people can just transfer that healthy skepticism to the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, we might well have a good chance of putting our nation back on the right road — toward liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony with the people of the world.

Tags: Banking Crisis, Banks, Economy

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Jacob Hornberger

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch.

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