Guess who's paying the tab for all the giant bank failures earlier this year?

Photo above - CEO of failed Silicon Valley Bank, and his Hawaiian vacation home.
Not shown - how much ATM and checking account fees will rise to cover this year's bank bailouts.

FDIC sets $1.9 billion special assessment from Wells Fargo (journalnow.com)

“Don't worry. No customer will lose ONE PENNY.” The FDIC always says that when a bank fails. The regulators even made a special effort this time to reassure America's elites that all their non-insured jumbo ($ millions) certificates of deposit would be covered. Even though the insurance is only supposed to protect ordinary people, like you and me.

The bank failures which I'm referring to of course are Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic, and Signature Bank. All three are dead and buried. Bought the farm. But the silver lining: no millionaire depositor lost a penny! And the cost of bailing them out is being assessed against – the rest of America's banks. The SAFE ones, which played by the rules. See link above.

The total cost of these bank failures is (currently) estimated at $20 billion. Subject to change. The accountants who are reviewing this may be the same ones who mis-forecast the US deficit last month, so cross your fingers. And another bank failed last week, but nobody was paying attention, so maybe it didn't really happen. If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there, does it make a sound?

Bank of America and Wells Fargo have already been tagged with a $4 billion “special fee” to replenish the FDIC's bailout war-chest. This is just the first shoe dropping. There will probably be additional fees assessed against Chase, Citibank, PNC, Capitol One, Citizens Bank, US Bank . . . If I left your bank off this list, it was inadvertent. It will likely pay to fix this, too.

If you were a customer of the 3 failed banks above, congrats on not losing a penny. Your money is now safely in the hands of . . . the surviving banks. But the billions in “special fees” being assessed by the FDIC will be paid by us anyway. Higher checking account fees. Return check fees. ATM charges. Credit card interest. Mortgage interest. Late payment fees. You think I'm kidding? Where the heck do you think banks get all their money from? Especially the money they pay the US government. Both normal taxes, and “special fees” like this bailout debacle.

SOMEBODY is going to end up paying at least $20 Billion higher fees and interest to fix this fiasco. We all are. Who do you think ATM fees, etc. fall hardest on? The millionaire elites, or you and me? Don't think too hard about this - it's not a trick question.

Here's my gripe, though. The biggest and worst bank failure this year (so far) was Silicon Valley Bank. The one whose CEO was an actual Federal Reserve official. The guy who fled to his Hawaiian vacation home on the next plane out, after SVB failed. He's still on the street, a free man. In fact, all 3 of the failed banks were closely supervised by the FDIC. Because they were weirdos, which didn't make their money the usual way through checking account fees, ATM fees, and mortgages. They were being watched by the FDIC but were greenlighted on all the weird stuff they did. Then all 3 failed, in a matter of days.

I don't like having that Federal Reserve Exec/CEO of Silicon Valley Bank walking around free. In fact, I don't like it that NONE of the Federal Reserve governors face consequences for these failures. You'd think there would be some accountability. You'd think . . .

But this is the US government. Customers and taxpayers are responsible for the cleanup of this mess. Let's check our bank statements and ATM receipts going forward and remind ourselves that it's always the little guy who bails out the millionaires and FDIC.

I'm just sayin' . . .