As has been widely reported, over a nine-month span before its demise, SVB did not employ a chief risk officer. However, SVB made sure it had a chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer on board at all times. Misplaced priorities, anyone?

When the rubber hit the road and the Fed’s decade-long money printing binge came to an end, banks like SBV, which didn’t see the economic writing on the wall because they were so concerned with showcasing their woke bona fides, were caught in a very perilous position.

To make a long story short, SBV had spent years taking cheap money from the Fed and investing poorly, mostly in long-term Treasury bonds. When the Fed hastily reversed course and started raising interest rates, short-term Treasury bonds began to pay a higher yield than long term Treasury bonds.

This is what economists call an inverted yield curve, and it was a huge flashing red sign that the economy is on unsound footing. Shockingly, even as this was happening, SVB and Signature just kept plugging along, business as usual.