In the latest edition of The Wall Street Journal's "Inside View," columnist Andy Kessler ponders the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history. The autopsy might seem straightforward: The bank was unusually vulnerable to interest rate hikes because most of its holdings were in long-term debt and because its customer base was disproportionately startups and other industries that needed more cash as interest rates rose. But Kessler suggests another possible cause. "In its proxy statement," he writes, "SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have '1 Black,' '1 LGBTQ+' and '2 Veterans.' I'm not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands." This tactic long predates SVB's collapse: "Say 'woke' in case of emergency" has become a favorite Republican strategy. At first, denunciations of "wokeism" were mostly used in attempts to oppose gay rights and scrub school curricula of mentions of Black history. But more recently, Republicans have expanded their use of the term. This is a preview of James Downie's latest article. Read the full column here. |
