Hey everyone, this is Kusha, I'm a producer on notes from America with Kai Wright.

A few months ago, we talked to author Malcolm Harris about capitalism.

This was right after the shocking failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

Specifically, we talked about the complicated origins of capitalism as it shows up today

in the United States.

That history is a little surprising, and if you follow the strands, it helps me at least

appreciate the full tapestry of our economic system today.

So in this episode, Kai and Malcolm talk about the roots of the banking system, the influence

of wealth in the pioneering West, and how horses were old school tech in Silicon Valley.

Here's that conversation, I hope you enjoy.

It's notes from America, I'm Kai Wright.

So many people had never heard of Silicon Valley Bank on the day it collapsed.

I had never heard of Silicon Valley Bank, I am going to be honest.

But we all just kind of instinctively knew this cannot be good for me, because Silicon

Valley stands for something in the global economy.

It stands for something in the American psyche.

Ideas like progress, growth, boundless wealth.

So what's it mean when the place that literally holds Silicon Valley's money goes broke?

There are of course still many competing answers to that question, and to the question

of why the bank collapsed in the first place.

But for one observer, it comes as a perversely well timed illustration.

For an argument, he's just spent like 700 pages making that Silicon Valley and California

...