It seemed like almost all of the financial and economic news this week had some connection to the SVB and Signature failures. In addition to including an assortment of those articles, we did have some economic data releases this week as well as the annual rejigging of the S&P 500 to talk about.

Economics

• The European Central Bank went ahead with a 50 basis point increase in interest rates. (Reuters) Now focus has turned to the Fed’s meeting next week.
• What will happen to interest rates when the Fed meets next week? The answer to that is far less clear than it was before the bankfailures. (NYT)
• Goldman Sachs doesn’t think there will be a rate hike nextweek. (CNBC)
• February CPI came in as expected: 0.4% for the month and 6% year-over-year, the lowest annual number since September 2021. (Yahoo Finance)
• US Industrial production was stagnant in February. (Seeking Alpha)

Investing

• The S&P 500 gets a reboot today, as the Index undergoes its annual overhaul of classification of member companies. (CNBC)

Banking/Payments

• This Atlanta Fed Blog explains how the Fed is trying to design payment systems with the unbanked in mind as primary customers, not secondary, to make any progress in bringing them the benefits of 21^st century technology along with the anonymity of cash.

SVB

• If you only have time to read one article on SVB this week, this Bankrate article does a good job of reviewing what happened and answering the big questions on most peoples minds about the handling and meaning of last week’s bank failures and the Federal agencies’ response.
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faced Congress this week and tried to assure them that a) the aid given to SVB and Signature Bank was not a bailout, and that b) the banking system was still sound. (CBS)
• ABC news answers the question “Will Americans end up footing the bill for bank failures?” (No)
• CNBC tries to answer the question “Is my money safe?”
• So what was it like for all of those start-ups scrambling to meet payroll last week? (CNBC)
• Here is more about the second bank failure last week--Signature Bank—and what that might mean for crypto. (Time)
• Major US banks came to the rescue of First Republic Bank ($30 billion) to help it avert a failure. (AP)
• Let the investigations begin!  The Hill explains who is looking for what.
• Visual Capitalist puts last week’s failures into historical context.

ICYMI - Check out all of the SVB related posts this week on the NGPF blog!

About the Author

Beth Tallman

Beth Tallman entered the working world armed with an MBA in finance and thoroughly enjoyed her first career working in manufacturing and telecommunications, including a stint overseas. She took advantage of an involuntary separation to try teaching high school math, something she had always dreamed of doing. When fate stepped in once again, Beth jumped on the opportunity to combine her passion for numbers, money, and education to develop curriculum and teach personal finance at Oberlin College. Beth now spends her time writing on personal finance and financial education, conducts student workshops, and develops finance curricula and educational content. She is also the Treasurer of Ohio Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.