For what it's worth, TARP ended up turning a profit for the government, so in my mind there's some track record of stiff-nosed decision making at Treasury. I'd feel differently if SVB stockholders were getting something out of this.
Why are some businesses more equal than others?
This is why FDIC exists in the first place.
> perpetuating the behavior that caused the failure.
A detail post-mortem is going to be needed to be done to see what cause this whole mess.
So far it seems their mistake is buying "risk free" bonds when they shouldn't have - but then again who could have expected interest rates to rise so quickly - and not having a diverse enough depositor base - SVB served mainly tech and Silvergate is heavily exposed to crypto; both sectors took hits recently resulting in people redrawing lots of money for a variety of reasons and it ultimately caused a run.
That's what I figured out watching various YouTube videos anyway.
Over a period of 10 years which is the duration of the bonds they bought, I would say that the chances are pretty fair.
Point being, some businesses _are_ more equal than others because they have the money to lobby lawmakers. In an actual free market, the banks should fail.
However, it seems to me that the situation with SVB is a Democratic Socialist move. Again, my opinion, but it seems rather progressive. In history, Democratic Socialist programs have produced, arguably, valuable programs for the US. Unfortunately, mentioning "Socialist" is usually the point in which many will stop listening.
[wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism#:~:text=D....)