This article was originally published by Austin Litman on Proofofwork.ca
Warren Buffet has been dumping his bank positions because banks go bankrupt. One example other than the famous one in 2008 is the “Savings and Loan Crisis” that took place mid-80s to the 90s. It’s when over 30% of all Saving and Loan Associations in America failed, and it ended up costing taxpayers over 100 billion dollars while bankers got bailed out (as is tradition.)
These associations take your money and put it into the market to try and make more. When they make the wrong choice, the money is gone. When too many customers ask for their money back at once, the companies shut down. During a recession, mostly everyone wants their money back since they need to pay for rising prices.
Buffet knows this, so he quietly shed over half all his exposure to banks (which mostly own the associations) to mitigate risk in his portfolio because we’re in a financial crisis. He’s expecting some banks to fail.
Every year since 2008, US banks have failed. But 0 in 2021 and 0 so far in 2022? ?
The banks we use today are the ones that acquired the failed ones.
