[actionablefiber]

They took deposits from depositors who would blow up if interest rates went up, and then used those deposits to buy assets that would blow up if interest rates went up. Interest rates went up, so their assets crashed at the same time that deposits plummeted and withdrawals skyrocketed.

If you want to standardly hedge against interest rate risk, that's what swaps are for. If you want to take on a comparatively less rate-sensitive portfolio, then you buy shorter-dated bonds. They yield less, but surely that's better than "the FDIC seizes your bank and your equity goes to zero."

[bjornsing]

> They yield less, but surely that's better than "the FDIC seizes your bank and your equity goes to zero."

For the individual banker, perhaps it's not? If rates stay low they get a fat bonus, if they go up they just get a new job somewhere else.

[actionablefiber]

Depends on the equity/cash split of your compensation. A failed bank is worth zero. Cash is cash.

[MrMan]

I think the chief risk officer at this bank left last year, they may have been the person who got the bank into these positions. it will be interesting to see if there is news coverage about that person's role in the crisis.