Summary: More on banking! Specifically more about a crucial job in the economy’s financial regulation ecosystem– the bank examiner. We hear about a “natural experiment” that shows that, in the absence of bank examiners, banks basically acted liked kids throwing spitballs in a classroom without a teacher! We also hear that we will likely face a shortage of bank examiners in the future. Uh oh! Inspired by this fact, our teaching idea is a career-exploration exercise created by Prof. Natalia Smirnova. Students use the rich BLS data to explore their own futures.
Summary: Another chapter in the Banking Turmoil of 2023– the end of Credit Suisse, a long-standing Swiss banking institution. The Indicator recaps how it got to the end of a road full of bad bets, unprofitable lending and scandal. We also hear about the discomfort in markets in the aftermath of the UBS-Credit Suisse merger down due to the write-down of “CoCo” bonds We seized this opportunity to create a quick, refresher (or even intro!) exercise on capital structure.
Summary: A discussion of this week’s current events without SVB would be incomplete! The Indicator boils down SVB’s problems to three key points. In the Teaching Ideas exercise, students will use SVB’s actual 2022 balance sheet to learn how a seemingly dramatic and complicated phenomenon like a bank failure still just boils down to the bread-n-butter basics!
Despite national and global efforts to discourage money laundering, there were recent reports from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network suggest suspicious transactions and funding during the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. This podcast further discusses some of the failures of banks to report suspicious activities in a timely manner. Matthew Collins from the Brookings Institute states that if our government really wants to hammer down on money laundering and other financial crimes, it is crucial to invest more funds into regulatory bodies such as FinCen.
Summary: Marketplace looks at the shadow banking system of providers of personal, auto and some mortgage loans,and the role these non banks have played since the financial crisis of 2008.
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