Harvard Prof., Fmr. IMF Economist Rogoff: San Fran Fed Did not Know About SVB’s Issues, However Seemingly Knew ‘Their Carbon Footprint’

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN Worldwide’s “First Move,” Harvard College Economics Professor and former Chief Economist on the Worldwide Financial Fund Ken Rogoff puzzled how the San Francisco Federal Reserve didn’t know in regards to the issues inside Silicon Valley Financial institution and remarked that “I’m sure that the San Francisco Fed knew a lot of things about Silicon Valley Bank, probably their carbon footprint.”

Rogoff mentioned that it isn’t simply him who has questions in regards to the San Francisco Fed’s dealing with of SVB, “everyone does.”

He continued, “So, how can it be that — I’m sure that the San Francisco Fed knew a lot of things about Silicon Valley Bank, probably their carbon footprint. But why didn’t they know what was going on with this? It’s just surprising. And then, when it unfolded, they weren’t technically insolvent right away. So, why didn’t they give them liquidity right away and nip it in the bud? It’s hard to know. These things move so fast and there are so many political pressures. It’s hard to know. Again, it hasn’t happened everywhere, so, it’s so hard to supervise this big banking sector. But this was an important bank, it very much will be missed.”