Regional Banks Have a Romaine Lettuce Problem
Just as diners don’t want to risk getting sick from bad vegetables, so bank customers don’t want to risk leaving their money at an unhealthy bank.
A lot like lettuce.
Photographer: Bloomberg
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Let’s talk about food recalls, by which I mean the banking crisis. (Everything is about the banking crisis nowadays, even exploding manhole covers.) The FDA and the USDA routinely issue warnings about foods containing things like undeclared allergens or salmonella strains. But every now and then, a viral outbreak infiltrates our social feeds and takes over our lives. Remember the Peanut Butter Pause of 2022? Or the Great Romaine Recall of 2018? Or the Chipotle E. Coli Closures of 2015? These are behavior-changing events. Nobody wants to be hospitalized with life-threatening diarrhea! So you throw out your peanut butter and steer clear of fast-casual salads and fajitas for a while. Better safe than sorry, you think to yourself, even if the origin of the food recall is thousands of miles away.