As the millionaire depositors in Silicon Valley Bank got all their money back courtesy of a U.S. government agency, there were no doubt sighs of relief among those bank customers who would otherwise have taken a severe financial beating.
Until the U.S. government swooped in Monday, that included the vast majority of deposits at SVB, which catered to Silicon Valley startups and venture capital firms. Deposits over $250,000 US are uninsured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC.
Even the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal, harking back to the hundreds of billions of dollars handed out following the 2008 banking meltdown, is debating whether the