The Regulatory Blunder That Gave Us the Silicon Valley Bank Disaster
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 choic...
16 Mar 202349min
Dan Davies On What Brought Down Silicon Valley Bank
Silicon Valley bank collapsed at record speed. And the world is still trying to figure out what went wrong? How did a bank with a strong history, a strong brand, and a fairly conservative investment p...
14 Mar 202333min
How the Federal Reserve Grew More Powerful Than Anyone Ever Imagined
In the short term, the Federal Reserve's job is straightforward. Raise or lower interest rates in order to meet its employment and inflation targets. But over the years, it has evolved to do a lot mor...
13 Mar 202344min
Companies Are Telling Us the Real Reason They're Still Raising Prices
The persistence of inflation is a bit of a mystery to economists. Many of the shocks of the last few years have faded. And the Fed has raised rates aggressively, with seemingly only a modest impact. S...
9 Mar 202340min
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on the Two Big Challenges Facing Crypto
Crypto is facing two distinct, yet related problems. First, a bunch of people have lost money due to the decline in coin prices and the collapse of major firms, such as FTX. At the same time, regulato...
6 Mar 202344min
How Empty Land in the Arizona Desert Gets Turned Into Homes
Homebuilders have experienced major whiplash over the last few years. The pandemic originally caused them to slam the brakes on new development. Then the housing boom happened and they raced to catch ...
2 Mar 202341min
Why We Don't Build More Apartments for Families
The vast majority of urban apartments in the US are geared towards single occupants, couples without kids or maybe young professionals with roommates. It's hard to find apartments with the kind of lay...
27 Feb 202341min
Why Interest Rates on Savings Accounts Are Still So Low
The Federal Reserve has been raising benchmark borrowing rates at the fastest pace in decades, but the interest rate paid out to millions of people with bank accounts is still stuck at almost zero. Ac...
23 Feb 202337min
