Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Warns Government Insuring Silicon Valley Bank Deposits Is Only a Victory for ‘Idiot Bank Managers’
Shark Tank star and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary blasted the plan to insure deposits amid the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, arguing the move is only a win for “idiot bank managers.”
O’Leary joined Fox News hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on Tuesday to discuss the Silicon Valley Bank failure and the announcement that deposits would be protected. President Joe Biden announced this week that people’s “deposits are safe.”
O’Leary blasted the plan, arguing it will simply provide a safety net for mismanagement. The Shark Tank star argued Silicon Valley Bank collapsed because of “idiot management,” as opposed to a regulatory issue. “Idiot” managers, he said, are now free to behave more irresponsibly.
“I don’t care what bank we’re talking about anymore, you as a depositor have no risk whatsoever so what stops the idiot bank manager going forward from doing anything they want within the regulatory environment, taking as much risk as possible to get the stock price of that bank up,” O’Leary said. “That’s how they’re compensated. This is going to create some very perverse acts by bank managers and crazy behaviors and in the end, it’s not a long-term solution whatsoever.”
He argued the federal government either needs to “nationalize” banks or allow them to succeed and fail in the free market, including the Silicon Valley Bank, which he again chalked up to “idiot managers.”
“We shouldn’t have done this and now we have the moral jeopardy ahead of us of idiot bank managers everywhere doing crazy behavior,” he said.
Watch above via Fox News.
