Banking-Crisis

SVB Executives Sold $84 Million in Stock Before Bank Collapse

| Importance: 8/10

Silicon Valley Bank executives, including CEO Greg Becker, sold $84 million in stock over two years, with $3.6 million sold just two weeks before the bank’s failure. The Justice Department and SEC launched investigations into these insider stock sales, which were executed under 10b5-1 trading …

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Paulson Authorizes AIG Bailout Benefiting Goldman Sachs

| Importance: 9/10

The U.S. government authorized an $85 billion bailout of American International Group (AIG), with Goldman Sachs receiving $12.9 billion—the largest individual payout. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs CEO, played a central role in the decision, despite significant conflicts of …

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Emergency Banking Act Passes in Eight Hours to Stabilize Collapsing Banking System

| Importance: 9/10

On March 9, 1933, just five days after Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration and three days after his declaration of a national bank holiday, Congress passes the Emergency Banking Act in a mere eight hours—many members voting without even reading the legislation. The act grants the President …

Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. Congress Federal Reserve William Woodin banking industry new-deal banking-crisis financial-regulation emergency-powers
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FDR Declares National Bank Holiday, Closing All Banks to Stop Collapse of Financial System

| Importance: 9/10

On March 6, 1933, two days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invokes emergency powers to declare a nationwide “bank holiday,” closing all banks in the United States and suspending all banking transactions. The unprecedented action aims to stop the complete collapse …

Franklin D. Roosevelt banking industry Federal Reserve American depositors banking-crisis new-deal financial-regulation emergency-powers great-depression
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