The thing we aren't calling a bailout, other banks & how German and Japanese debt seem like a safe haven plus modeling Pearl Harbor

Great links, reading and images from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze

Memories are hazy, foggy things. The mind twists its own images and narratives with the passage of time. Iraqi-born artist Mohammed Sami is trying to make sense of that fog in his work. The paintings here are re-worked, rehashed, re-cooked memories of life in war ravaged Iraq, of being co-opted to paint propaganda images, of fleeing, of life in a Swedish refugee camp.

Source: Time Out

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One read on the US government intervention to contain the fallout from the SVB collapse? Make it this thread.

Brad Setser @Brad_Setser

The outline of the US government's response to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank is now clear, and the US didn't mess around. Clearly there was real concern about deposit flight and funding driven contagion. The response has three legs -- 1/

federalreserve.govJoint Statement by Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDICWashington, DC -- The following statement was released by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell, and FDIC Cha

Plunging

Of the 124 listed US banks with a market value of $5bn or less as of Friday, more than 100 were in the red.

Source: FT

When you need a little bit of fiat!

Cryptocurrency prices have soared as investors breathed a sigh of relief that US regulators moved to bolster the US banking system after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Source: FT

Strange beneficiary of America’s embarrassment, the Bank of Japan

Robin Brooks @RobinBrooksIIF

Unambiguous macro winner in the SVB aftermath: BoJ yield curve control. For the first time in a very long while, 10-year JGB yield is well below the 0.5% cap...

Venture dominance

Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart

"SVB’s vast reach was laid bare to Joshua Frost, Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial markets, as he addressed a virtual audience of almost 1,000 venture capitalists and their portfolio companies on Friday evening."

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Is the German Bund the true safe haven in a US storm?

Robin Brooks @RobinBrooksIIF

The fear factor in the US Treasury market has spilled over to other government bond markets. In the Euro zone, it is the periphery that is most affected, while German Bunds seem to have improving liquidity. We've flagged Bunds as the world's "true" safe haven asset given low debt

Mohammed Sadi, Refugee Camp II Acrylic on linen 2019 Patrick Heide

Sign of the times:

Techtracker ASPI

Economic geography of rivers

Kamil Galeev @kamilkazani

You can see how blessed is America with its geography, if you compare Mississippi with Volga. The largest river in Europe. Easily navigable. No rapids. Slow -> easy travel in both directions. And flowing nowhere

LindyMan @PaulSkallas

It feels like there should be much richer and bigger cities on the Mississipi river. It's this huge river where they normally put cities in Europe. Obviously there's some cities but it's a big let down. Hundreds of years ago it'd anchor civilizations. https://t.co/nyMPhJPJn8

Japanese scale model of Pearl Harbor built for a propaganda movie

Source: WarshipPorn

How Spain mastered the high-speed train

Mohammed Sami, The Fountain I, 2021 Carnegie Museum of Art