[JamisonM]

"I just hope nobody forgets how prominent VCs behaved during the brief period of uncertainty."

The point is that these VC's didn't act to support their investments, they flailed around begging for bailout (that they probably didn't need but they didn't understand banking well enough to know that or bother to consult any experts before making public statements).

They behaved badly and should be embarrassed and everyone should remember it.

[adastra22]

...why? For asking for government intervention to protect the innocent and avoid contagion? Why should that be embarrassing?

[arglebarnacle]

Why do you find it believable that they asked for government intervention to protect "the innocent" as opposed to simply acting to protect their own private financial interests, which seems to be the simplest explanation?

I'm not even convinced that the depositors made whole here were innocent--they accepted a known risk by exceeding the risk-free FDIC limit. The sad part is that in our society, we have no qualms about literally turning working people out into the street when they make financial missteps, but the already-wealthy receive prompt intervention from the highest levels to protect them and other wealthy people from the consequences of their investment decisions.

What argument is really left for this kind of intervention, besides appeals to the trickle-down system where the rich must be vigilantly protected since the rest of our society is set up to be disrupted when they fail. The whole system is morally and politically bankrupt.

[adastra22]

> Why do you find it believable that they asked for government intervention to protect "the innocent" as opposed to simply acting to protect their own private financial interests

They are the innocent party here though (well, except for maybe Peter Thiel). The depositors didn't cause this problem.

[zamnos]

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/01...

Being against student loan forgiveness or any sort of help to anyone, ever, but then running to mommy Yellen the second you get in trouble is just too hypocritical to believe.

If that's where you (philosophical you, not you personally) landed on those two issues, you can get fucked.

[reaperducer]

Why should that be embarrassing?

Because they preached for years that regulation is bad, and the government shouldn't be involved in their financial affairs.

Then when something went wrong, they begged for a bailout from the very regulators they disdained: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/urgent-sign-the-petition-no...

[JamisonM]

They begged for special dispensation that they didn't ever need. They proved themselves to be both selfish and ignorant and deserve any derision they receive.

[wonnage]

This was an extremely obvious example of when the private sector could've collaborated to solve a problem. SVB was doing a capital raise just last week. Instead the VC community colluded to accelerate the problem and is now asking for a government bailout

[tomato_123]

What innocent? They could have sold the uninsured deposits at a discount, made payroll, and let the equity eat the loss. Instead they went on an embarrassing bailout begging extravaganza and unfortunately succeeded. Nobody, ever, should take any of these people seriously again.

[WanderPanda]

They actually brewed up the contagion. Without the alarmism everyone would just assume that they get a 10-20% haircut and have most of their money back within a week

[wmf]

VCs themselves could have fixed this problem (that they, in part, created) and some of them did but many did not.