Jeff Jackson’s Bank Shot
Congressman Jeff Jackson is the best political communicator in North Carolina.
His social media posts yesterday on the banking situation are a master class in explaining volatile, complex issues in simple, plain-spoken terms.
Last night, I saw that his video had been viewed over one million times. I’m a print guy, so I read his email. I learned more from his 670-some words than from thousands of words in news reports.
And he added some nice color about Sunday night’s emergency Zoom call with several hundred members of Congress:
“It was literally on regular Zoom. I was emailed a link. I clicked it, and suddenly I was in a very normal-looking Zoom room, only this one had most of Congress in there. (It wasn’t even presentation mode – just a wide-open Zoom room where people had to be reminded to mute themselves when they weren’t speaking. It was wild.)”
His key points:
- “After recapping the situation, the Treasury Department informed us that all the depositors at the Silicon Valley Bank will be made whole. Same with the bank in New York.
- “We were told that we’re going to pay for that with a fund that banks already pay into – not taxpayer money.
- “We were also told that only the depositors were being made whole – shareholders and bondholders in the two failed banks will be wiped out’.”
He added this about the reaction of the members of Congress:
“First, no one expressed any disagreement with the fundamental decision by the Treasury Department to make the depositors whole.
“In fact, the majority of the questions were members seeking reassurance that the steps the Treasury was announcing would be sufficient to stop the contagion. Questions alternated between Republicans and Democrats and most of us asked some version of the same question: Will this be enough?
“Second, with one exception, everyone treated the situation with the seriousness it deserves. Grandstanding and bickering were present, but basically minimal.”
He concluded, “you need to know that your deposits at your bank are safe because the full weight of the federal government has decided that they will be.”
In a time when we’re tired of talking heads and talking points, talking sense is a powerful weapon.
Jeff Jackson’s Bank Shot
Congressman Jeff Jackson is the best political communicator in North Carolina.
His social media posts yesterday on the banking situation are a master class in explaining volatile, complex issues in simple, plain-spoken terms.
Last night, I saw that his video had been viewed over one million times. I’m a print guy, so I read his email. I learned more from his 670-some words than from thousands of words in news reports.
And he added some nice color about Sunday night’s emergency Zoom call with several hundred members of Congress:
“It was literally on regular Zoom. I was emailed a link. I clicked it, and suddenly I was in a very normal-looking Zoom room, only this one had most of Congress in there. (It wasn’t even presentation mode – just a wide-open Zoom room where people had to be reminded to mute themselves when they weren’t speaking. It was wild.)”
His key points:
- “After recapping the situation, the Treasury Department informed us that all the depositors at the Silicon Valley Bank will be made whole. Same with the bank in New York.
- “We were told that we’re going to pay for that with a fund that banks already pay into – not taxpayer money.
- “We were also told that only the depositors were being made whole – shareholders and bondholders in the two failed banks will be wiped out’.”
He added this about the reaction of the members of Congress:
“First, no one expressed any disagreement with the fundamental decision by the Treasury Department to make the depositors whole.
“In fact, the majority of the questions were members seeking reassurance that the steps the Treasury was announcing would be sufficient to stop the contagion. Questions alternated between Republicans and Democrats and most of us asked some version of the same question: Will this be enough?
“Second, with one exception, everyone treated the situation with the seriousness it deserves. Grandstanding and bickering were present, but basically minimal.”
He concluded, “you need to know that your deposits at your bank are safe because the full weight of the federal government has decided that they will be.”
In a time when we’re tired of talking heads and talking points, talking sense is a powerful weapon.