Federal banking regulators took aggressive new actions aimed at preventing depositors in failed Silicon Valley Bank from losing money — and at trying to prevent its downfall from unleashing a nationwide run across the banking system.

Why it matters: The extraordinary actions, using tools last deployed in the early days of the pandemic and in the 2008 global financial crisis, are an attempt to avert a broad banking crisis triggered by a run on the bank.

• If unchecked, that would lead to cascading bank failures and potentially a broad financial crisis.

Driving the news: The Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve, citing "systemic risk" under which the agencies can take extraordinary actions, said that the FDIC's insurance funds will be used to prevent depositors from losing money.

• The action prevents a situation in which those who had more than the $250,000 per-saver cap on deposit insurance at SVB face potential losses.
• The Fed also announced a new "Bank Term Funding Program," invoking emergency authority, that enables other banks to obtain quick cash in exchange for collateral.

Webmaster addition: So much for Janet Yellen's comment yesterday that there would be no bailout! 

New York-based Signature Bank, a key bank to the cryptocurrency industry, was shut down by regulators on Sunday, according to a joint statement from U.S. regulators. The statement also detailed actions aimed at stemming broader fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

State of play: All depositors at Signature, the third bank to shutter in a matter of days, will be made whole under the same systemic risk exception that allowed that outcome for Silicon Valley Bank customers.

• In a separate statement, the New York Department of Financial Services, one of Signature's regulators, said it remained in contact with the other entities it oversees, "in light of market events."

Between the lines: The collapse of Signature Bank, once known as one of the most crypto-friendly institutions on Wall Street, comes after the failure of crypto bank Silvergate last week.

• Late last year, Signature said it would pare back its exposure to the crypto industry and offload billions of dollars worth of deposits tied to the crypto sector.

The Biden administration is moving to protect some 16 million acres of land and water in Alaska from future oil and gas drilling, according to plans the Interior Department announced Sunday.

The big picture: President Biden's conservation drive comes as climate activists, environmentalists and other groups express concern that his administration will soon approve the ConocoPhillips Willow oil project, a large-scale facility to be located on the North Slope of a swath of land known as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).

• An announcement on this could come as soon as Monday.

Context: President Biden has pledged to move away from fossil fuels. But the Willow project that initially got the go-ahead during the Trump administration has the backing of officials including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), some Alaska Native leaders and unions.

Details: Biden is prohibiting future oil and gas leasing in the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean, per an Interior Department statement.

• The department is writing a new proposed rule to protect over 13 million acres in the NPR-A, which its statement noted was populated by grizzly and polar bears, caribou and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.

California, which never allowed slavery, is nonetheless considering giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Black residents in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery, raising practical questions about how a state already facing a massive budget deficit could swing such an expensive program.

The California Reparations Task Force, which was created by state legislation in 2020, is weighing a proposal to dole out just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion.

"If California can admit its sins and change the narrative, then there is a way forward for states and cities across the nation," California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who wrote the bill creating the task force when she served in the state assembly, said last week.

Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers, coordinated by the Soros-funded Poynter Institute through the International Fact-Checking Network, are able to suppress whatever content they want. 

Even when that content criticizes the fact-checkers themselves.

NewsBusters received a fact-check from USA Today over its piece debunking a fact-check from USA Today. The initial fact-check, written by college student and intern Devon Link, claimed that it is “inaccurate to say” that the Democratic Party is responsible for the Civil War and founded the KKK. A response, written by NewsBusters Associate Editor Scott Whitlock, cited prominent 19th century writer Robert G. Ingersoll, who said, “Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Democrat.”

Are you ready?

Despite cries from Summers, Yellen and other the DC illuminati (Biden is oddly silent), US banks are NOT fine. In fact, banks in general are suffering from Fed rates increases due to holding of long-term Treasuries and MBS.

In fact, The Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation is causing serious problems, as exemplified by AOC. No, not THAT AOC. but bank Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income.

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (AOCI) are special gains and losses that are listed as special items in the shareholder equity section of a company’s balance sheet. The AOCI account is the designated space for unrealized profits or losses on items that are placed in the other comprehensive income category.

On the regulatory call reports, AOCI is added to regulatory capital. Since SVB’s AOCI was negative (because of its unrealized losses on AFS securities) as of Dec. 31, it lowered the company’s total equity capital. So a fair way to gauge the negative AOCI to the bank’s total equity capital would be to divide the negative AOCI by total equity capital less AOCI — effectively adding the unrealized losses back to total equity capital for the calculation.

Jen Psaki, the truth-challenged former press secretary and future host at raging left-wing propaganda mill MSNBC, slammed Fox News in an appearance at South by Southwest (SXSW).

“The question I have for you then, as a former White House press secretary and now as a host on MSNBC, is should we be referring to FOX as a news network?” left-wing New York Times writer Wajahat Ali asked. “And if so, why do we give them legitimacy?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Probably not. We shouldn’t call them a news network.”

“Probably not?” Ali asked.

“Well, we shouldn’t,” Psaki said. “But I don’t know if that’s the most important question. I think the challenge here is all of that is insane, horrific. And everybody should think it’s crazy.”

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is forecasting an “economic meltdown” within hours of the banks opening up on Monday morning following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Ackman is urging Joe Biden to step in and protect all of the bank’s depositors, warning that inaction could lead to a ripple effect across other smaller banks within the industry.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th largest bank in the United States, collapsed this week. This marks the worst financial institution failure since the Great Recession in 2008. With $209 billion in total assets at the end of 2022, the bank failed after a 60 percent drop in shares due to declining customer deposits, forcing SVB to sell off $1.75 billion in shares.

Ackman’s warning came hours after Greg Becker, the CEO of SVB Financial Group, sent a video message to employees of the bank acknowledging the “incredibly difficult” 48 hours leading up to its collapse on Friday. Becker said he is working with banking regulators to find a partner for the bank, but there is “no guarantee” a deal will be struck.

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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had her feet held to the fire by an unlikely opponent in MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

She appeared on his primetime show on Friday when Hayes grilled her on the rumor that President Joe Biden’s administration was going to start detaining families at the border again to assist in scaling back the border crisis prior to the 2024 presidential election.

“There were reports that the White House was considering – or the Department Homeland Security was considering – reintroducing the practice of family detention,” the host said, as he mentioned that this “was harshly criticized” by Biden was campaigning against former President Donald Trump. “Is it true that that’s being considered?”

Jean-Pierre could have chosen to crush the rumor right there, but she danced around it.

Webmaster addition:

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures this morning.

This was an explosive interview.  Comer dropped several bombs on the Biden Crime Family.  According to Comer the House Oversight Committee is working with four individuals with close ties to the Bidens.  Comer says the committee now has documents that tie the Bidens to the Chinese Communist Party.

Biden is finished.

James Comer:  “It’s as bad as we thought… Since we’ve last spoken we have bank records in hand.  We have individuals who are working with our committee.  In the last two weeks we’ve met with either these individuals personally or with their attorneys.  And that would be four individuals who had ties in with the Biden family in their various schemes around the world. So now we have in hand documents  We have in hand documents in hand that show just how the Biden family was getting money from the Chinese Communist Party.”

Comer’s got the goods!

Silicon Valley Bank has failed following a run on deposits, after its parent company’s share price crashed a record 60% on Thursday.

Trading of SVB Financial Group’s SIVB, -60.41% stock was halted early Friday, after the shares plunged again in premarket trading. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said SVB was one of a few banks she was “monitoring very carefully.” Reaction poured in from several analysts who discussed the bank’s liquidity risk.

California regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank and handed the wreckage over to the Federal Deposit Insurance Administration later on Friday.

Below is the same list of 10 banks we highlighted on Thursday that showed similar red flags to those shown by SVB Financial through the fourth quarter. This time, we will show how much they reported in unrealized losses on securities — an item that played an important role in SVB’s crisis.