The English word ‘bank’ meaning a depository and lending institution, derives from the Italian word ‘banca’, or ‘bench.’ This belies the origins of modern finance in Renaissance Italy, where deals initially struck at coffee house bench evolved into the great trading and banking houses of the Medicis, where double-entry book keeping enabled the matching of debtors with creditors that spurred the growth of industrial Europe over the coming centuries. Today, with daily capital flows measured in the trillions of dollars enabled by high-speed fiber optics and a global communications network, major decisions happen much more quickly, and because of the levered nature of fractional reserve finance, regional concern can magnify into global contagion faster than an actual pandemic. In the case of last weekend, where Silicon Valley Bank, one of the top-30 global banks went into receivership, the political institutions of the United States were caught off guard, and in an attempt to quell further concerns, went into overdrive this week as the Federal Reserve discount window was opened guaranteeing the assets of all major banks. Not to be outdone, the Swiss National Bank just intervened in the takeover of Credit Suisse, a century and half years old institution, to further halt panic in European markets. Memories of the 2008 financial crisis are on everyone’s mind, and the ripple effects of these events are surely to continue throughout the year.
Myth of the 20th Century – Episode 250 – BANKING CRISIS – After Dark
— References —
Pirates of Silicon Valley – Digital Panopticon
The Dictator’s Handbook
The Rise and Fall of General Electric
The Way Life Should Be – The Globalists Demographic War on America
Citizen Kane – After Dark
Weeks of Rage – The Riots of 2020
Tibet – Into the Air
Hoaxed – Everything They Told Us Was a Lie
US Special Forces – Counter Insurgency
Food – It’s What’s for Dinner
Barbarism vs. Civilization – James LaFond
Terror – Enemy of the People
John McAfee – Uncharted Waters
The Grand Chessboard – Zbigniew Brzezinski
The Diamond Trade – Rough Cuts
Ockham’s Guillotine – a conversation with James Bowery
Emergency Broadcast – Plague Wars Edition
Entitlements – The High Cost of Good Intentions
Korean Tiger – the Park Chung-Hee Era
Italy – The Struggle for Nationhood
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