March 16, 2023· 49 min

The Regulatory Blunder That Gave Us the Silicon Valley Bank Disaster

Lev Menand

Orality

Model

79%

Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,758 words)

M:29%

HostTracy Alloway(1,691 words)

M:29%

GuestLev Menand(4,898 words)

M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic37%

obviously, certainly, very

Engagement49%

you, our, your

Memory Aids100%

listen, so, like

Repetition100%

bank (81x), like (80x), they (73x)

Parallelism100%

And I'm Tracy Alloway...., So, Tracy, we obviously, I thi..., But then the other quest there...

Sound Patterns53%

49 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"

Formulaic Phrases2%

i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging12%

could, maybe, may

Passive Voice13%

are grafted, is designed, is allowed

Abstract Nouns21%

investment, information, volatility

Subordination7%

since, because, until

Sentence Length51%

Avg: 17.7 words/sentence

Word Complexity50%

investment, analyze, anticipate

Academic Markers0%

Impersonal Style51%

453 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style84%

monthly, carefully, obviously

Description

Whenever a major financial institution collapses and needs a bailout, it's easy to say, "Where were the regulators?" But that's only a useful question if you can pinpoint the specific regulatory choices that led to any particular situation. So what caused Silicon Valley Bank to implode? On this episode of the podcast, we speak with Columbia Law School professor Lev Menand, who discusses the defanging of bank supervisors in the run-up to this fiasco. With proper oversight, someone might have caught and put a stop to the unique set of risks the bank was taking. But without proper oversight, they were encouraged to go for all-out growth, regardless of the ultimate social cost. We also discuss legislative changes over time that led to this buildup of risk. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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