We’ve entered a complicated new era of bank bailouts

[superadmin]

The whisper of the word “bailout” is enough to send a shiver down anyone’s spine. For most, it evokes specific and evocative memories of the 2008 global financial crisis, when the United States government stepped in to keep flailing financial institutions afloat using taxpayer money. In the popular imagination, it persists as an example of capitalistic governance at its worst: The big banks took big risks, and everybody else paid for it.

Now, in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s implosion and the government’s announcement that it will step in to return money to depositors and shore up the US banking system once again, the term bailout is here once again. But is that what’s really happening here? The long and short of it is that it’s complicated, but basically, kind of yes, though this isn’t a 2008 redux.

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