Once upon a time, the greed of tobacco companies was channeled through libertarian outrage over the restriction of smokers’ freedom to choose cancer. Today, the outrage is serving the interests of bankers panicking at the prospect of central bank digital currencies.
ATHENS – When First Republic Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation organized a shotgun sale of its assets to JPMorgan Chase. That violated the FDIC’s cardinal rule that no bank owning more than 10% of insured US deposits should be allowed to expand further by absorbing another US bank. But, because sparing taxpayers the cost of another bank bailout took precedence, the US authorities permitted – indeed helped – America’s largest bank, already a too-big-to-fail (TBTF) institution, to grow even larger.
ATHENS – When First Republic Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation organized a shotgun sale of its assets to JPMorgan Chase. That violated the FDIC’s cardinal rule that no bank owning more than 10% of insured US deposits should be allowed to expand further by absorbing another US bank. But, because sparing taxpayers the cost of another bank bailout took precedence, the US authorities permitted – indeed helped – America’s largest bank, already a too-big-to-fail (TBTF) institution, to grow even larger.