Matt Levine, Columnist

Banking Gets a Bit Narrower

Also Bed Bath stock, SVB’s bonds and the Chainsmokers.

April 20, 2023 at 6:21 PM UTC

Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, he was a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit; and an editor of Dealbreaker.

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Programming note: Money Stuff will be off tomorrow, back on Monday.

We have talked a few times recently about, like, the theory of banking. That theory goes roughly like this. Banks fund themselves with deposits, which are basically short term and safe: If you have $100 in a bank account, you expect that it will always be worth $100, and you expect to be able to withdraw five $20 bills any time you want. Meanwhile banks invest their money in assets (loans, bonds) which are basically long term and risky: Banks make loans to risky businesses that don’t have to be repaid for years.