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>Given we have de facto uncapped the FDIC’s insurance limit,

It was never capped in any hard manner, remember the fine print is "up to at least" $250,000.00.

The limit can be as high as the FDIC's feeling that particular day, the only thing set in stone is the floor of $250,000.00.



> The limit can be as high as the FDIC's feeling that particular day, the only thing set in stone is the floor of $250,000.00.

as long as the payout doesn't exceed the FDIC's funds

its a $100 billion fund insuring $14 trillion in deposits...


> its a $100 billion fund insuring $14 trillion in deposits

Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. (As well as what looks like the Fed [1].)

[1] https://bpi.com/the-mysterious-footnote-7-to-whom-and-on-wha...



You know those analogies that compare a normal person's charity to a rich person's charity? So a billionaire giving $1m is like me giving someone a 100% tip on a $10 meal.

$4T in debt for the US is bearable. Between a $23T GDP and being constitutionally obligated to pay those debts as they come due, it's not really an issue. There's probably a lot of fraud in government programs, but that money still gets spent in the economy that financed the loan.

The issue is deficits. Those can go up in times of crisis, but end up bolstering the nation's ability to pay, so it's not all bad. I have near complete contempt for what passes for political parties in the US but, historically speaking, the way to go if you care about reducing the debt is Democrats. They consistently wipe out the deficit and set us on a path to paying it down just in time for Republicans to take over and flip it back to red with tax cuts and set the stage for crisis with deregulation. Democrats might raise the debt, but it's usually to deal with a crisis.


It's historically worth quite a bit.



See that slide down after most people got checks and businesses got PPP loans they didn't have to pay back when the pandemic was at its worst? That's investment paying off. And that's with supply issues that continue to this day.

Watch that space for when supply catches up and we start figuring out better pandemic management after the next killer wave. The road ahead is bumpy, but I see wise investments paying off as long as some idiot doesn't get into power and start cutting taxes for people who don't need them again.

The people who keep loaning money to the government at least don't seem worried because they keep doing it.


> limit can be as high as the FDIC's feeling that particular day

Technically, the FDIC has to find the failure to be systemically important. Legally, nobody defined what that process should be, so you are in practice correct.


In this case

> All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits.


Indeed - the government isn't taking responsibility, they've leaned on the private sector to sort this out among themselves.

(Matt Levine et al have argued that the SV VC community should have taken over more, or indeed any, of the rescue role, since they were responsible for overweighting SVB and then bankrunning it. But that hasn't happened)


> the government isn't taking responsibility

Ish. The loss-sharing transaction does involve the FDIC taking risk [1]. They claim they will settle up actual losses with special assessments on their members. And there may be no losses at all. But there is definitely risk being assumed by the FDIC, an entity backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.

It also looks like the FDIC is providing JPMorgan with a $50bn term loan [2]. (Shout out to snake_doc [3].)

[1] https://www.fdic.gov/resources/resolutions/bank-failures/fai...

[2] https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ir/news/2023/jpmc-acquires-sub...

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35770684


"The FDIC is not supported by public funds; member banks' insurance dues are its primary source of funding."


The FDIC is not normally supported by public funds.

If it ran out of money, it's nearly certain the government would step in to cover the shortfall.




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