From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

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This week, are we in the

midst of a new financial crisis? The failure of Silicon Valley Bank last weekend, and the federal

bailout of its depositors this week, suddenly focused attention on the stresses and weaknesses in the

U.S. financial system. Two other American banks, these with heavy exposure to the cryptocurrency

markets also went under,

and there have been fears all week about the health of other smaller US financial institutions.

With Credit Suisse, one of Europe's most stored names in banking, also stumbling into the arms of

its central bank, which through the lender an emergency $50 billion lifeline, the crisis seems

to be going global.

So how bad is it? What's

behind these latest tremors? Specifically, why did SVP's depositors get a bailout? Even those

many customers there with deposits well in excess of federal deposit insurance guarantee limits.

An SVP wasn't even supposed to be a systemically important bank that was too big to

fail. Did the Biden administration do its many friends in Silicon Valley a favor? Well, to talk about all

this, I'm delighted to be joined this week by Sheila Baer. Ms. Baer was chair of the Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation during the tumultuous years of the global financial crisis 15 years ago.

She headed the agency from 2006 to 2011 and was involved in most of the crucial decisions

made back then as the Bush and then Obama administrations, along with the Federal Reserve

and other agencies grappled with the crisis. She was often known for clashing with colleagues

...