by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

Welcome to the great banking collapse of 2023.  Please try to enjoy the ride.  When FTX crumbled, I explained to my readers that it was not the first domino to fall and that it certainly would not be the last.  Sadly, that prediction turned out to be completely accurate.  Within the last week, we have witnessed the second and third largest bank collapses in the entire history of our country.  But Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are not unique cases.  The Federal Reserve created a 620 billion dollar blackhole in our banking system by aggressively raising interest rates, and our quadrillion dollar derivatives pyramid scheme is starting to tremble violently.  The Federal Reserve is desperately trying to fix things by recklessly spraying money around, but the truth is that Fed officials are ultimately going to need a much bigger hose.