Sherman Frederick/Properly Subversive
The Washington political class is talking big about the accountability of bank executives after last week’s round of regional bank failures. They want to allow regulators to impose tougher penalties, such as clawing back past compensation and the authority to bar bad bankers from opening another bank after a failure.
All this is fine. But, if we want to get serious about banking accountability, we should apply tougher accountability measures to a bank’s board of trustees, as well as executives.
The poster boy for that is the Silicon Valley Bank, which failed last week. It had a doozy of a board. Only one was a real banker. The others were an odd collection of Bay Area wokesters, chosen for reasons other than their business acumen. There’s nothing wrong with a show-pony board, I guess, except when the trustees fail to do their jobs.
For example, under the “watchful” eyes of the SVB board, the bank slipped into a “wokeness-over-competence” mode, making silly loans left and right while allowing the position of risk management officer go unfilled.
What kind of board of trustees does that? One not focussed on the fundamentals of banking, I’ll tell you that.
Hold bank trustees accountable just like executives.
It couldn’t hurt.
ZOMBIE VOTES
The Washington Post reports that researchers paid by Donald Trump’s post-election team had “high confidence” that 12 ballots were cast in the names of deceased people in Clark County, Nev., and believed the “high end potential exposure” was 20 voters statewide — some 1,486 fewer than Trump’s lawyers said. (Hat tip: A tweet from Jon Ralston.)
The dead should not vote, I have a firm rule about that. But 20 zombie votes statewide doesn’t quite get Trump to victory he said he deserved in Nevada. In my humble opinion, that “stolen election” claim in 2020, for which Adam Laxalt carried the Trump banner, hurt Laxalt in his run for Senate in 2022.
JOE VS. ELON
President Joe Biden and Elon Musk had an interesting Twitter exchange over the weekend. In case you missed it, take a look:
Joe: “Look, I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you can earn it, but just pay your fair share. I think you ought to pay a minimum tax of 25%. It’s about basic fairness.”
Elon: I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average! I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022. I certainly agree that everyone should pay taxes and not engage in elaborate tax-avoidance schemes. Would be curious to hear how these other “billionaires” are so good at avoiding taxes! We should get rid of GRATs, but maybe other things too.
WHAT I’M WATCHING
To show once again how diverse my movie tastes are, I’m going to give you two recommendations. The first is the comedy/horror flick “Cocaine Bear.” Yes, I saw it. And, yes, I liked it. It’s funny – hell, just the title is funny.
I also highly recommend “Quiet Girl,” a sweet Irish film. Hard to describe without spoiling it, but it’s about as far away from “Cocaine Bear” as you can get.
Both should be streaming soon, I suspect.
ONE MORE THING
– My income tax refund was so small, the tax lady took the money out of her bra.
– Scientists discovered a fossil grasping a tube of Blistex. It was named Coldasaur.
– Innuendo is Italian for suppository.
Thanks for reading again this week. Avoid soreheads, laugh a little, and always question authority.
“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@ gmail. com.