It is Monday, 13 March 2023. It has been a rather eventful weekend around Lawrence, Kansas, as well as other parts of the world.
I’m a basketball fan, as I have shared in the past. Kansas did not have a great weekend, as they fell in the Big 12 post-season tournament to Texas. Bill Self, the head coach, was still in the hospital following a cardiac emergency (ended up getting a couple of stents out in) and one of our best defenders – a starter- was out with back spasms. The end result was an uninspired loss to the Longhorns.
Kansas still pulled down a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, and is considered (?) the favorite in the West region. If Kansas can make it back to the Final Four, they’ll have to get their work done in Des Moines and Las Vegas.
In US news, two banks have failed since I last posted. It reminded me of events in 2008. After the financial crisis of 2008, a piece of legislation was enacted to prevent banks from overlending – that was called Dodd-Frank. The whole point of Dodd-Frank was protection and reducing risk. Good idea, right?
It’s a good idea if you can stick to it.
The CEO of Silicon Valley Bank is on the record as lobbying for a repeal of Dodd-Frank as early as 2015. Tenets of Dodd-Frank were effectively neutralized by legislation during the Trump administration – the Financial Choice Act of 2017, and the “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act” of 2018. Looks like both were inappropriately named as a reduction in lenders reduced financial choice, and consumers were not protected by anything other than the FDIC.
Meanwhile, idiots out on the internet are blaming diversity and equality initiatives.
Say what?
True. There are people out there that are arguing that the problem with SVB was the fact they were implementing diversity and equality training – basically training that teaches people that all of your coworkers are human beings worthy of a basic level of respect for simply walking the face of the earth. It’s smoke and mirrors, as these are the same folks that will twist themselves into knots to rationalize GOP policy.
I’m on a prep week. Time to get prepping.
I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.
Peace y’all.
