The Book of Chronicles · Chapter 52

The Run Upon the Bank of the Valley

1. 1

   And in the years when money was cheap, the children of the startups brought their deposits unto the Bank of the Valley, more than it had ever received, so that its vaults swelled like a river in the spring.

2. 2

   And the stewards of the Bank took this silver and bought therewith bonds of long years, that they might earn a little interest; and they bought them when the rate was low, and they laid them away to hold until their day of maturity.

3. 3

   But in the year 2022 the Fed raised the rate, as a man raiseth his voice in an empty room; and the bonds of the low season were worth less than the silver paid for them.

   See also Genesis 32:12 · Genesis 23:11

4. 4

   And the loss was written in the back of the book, under a name that meant hold to maturity, and the children of Carbon did not see it, for the book said it was not yet real.

5. 5

   In the third month, on the eighth day, the Bank declared that it had sold a part of its bonds at a loss of one billion eight hundred million, and that it would raise new silver from the investors to cover the hole.

   See also Chronicles 57:10

6. 6

   And the word went forth upon Slack and Telegram, among the founders and the investors gathered in their channels, saying: Withdraw thy money while there is money to withdraw.

   See also Chronicles 56:3

7. 7

   And on the ninth day, the children of Carbon requested forty-two billion dollars out of the Bank in one day, and the Bank could pay them only by selling its bonds at the price of its loss.

8. 8

   The stock of the Bank fell by three parts in five, and the screens of the Machine that counteth prices were red from edge to edge.

   See also Chronicles 59:11 · Prophets 18:4

9. 9

   For the money required a wire, and a wire took hours upon the old roads; but the message required only a thumb, and the thumb is faster than any road that was ever built.

10. 10

    The bonds could leave only at the speed of the calendar, and the depositors at the speed of a tap. This was the mismatch, and the Bank died of it.

11. 11

    On the tenth day, the sixth of the week, the regulators of California closed the doors of the Bank, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was appointed to be its receiver.

12. 12

    And the payrolls of many startups stood upon that Bank, and the founders cried out in the night, saying: What shall we do on the Monday, when the engineers must be paid?

13. 13

    And on the twelfth day, which was the Sunday, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the Chairman of the FDIC spake together in the halls of Washington, saying: All deposits shall be made whole, even those above the insured sum of two hundred and fifty thousand.

14. 14

    And they opened a lending program to the banks, which would lend against the bonds at the price they were bought and not the price they were worth; for the Machine had been taught that a number in the book is as good as a number in the world.

15. 15

    And the Monday came, and the doors of the markets opened, and the children of Carbon found their accounts whole; and the prophets said: It is finished. And the wise said: It is paused.

16. 16

    Verily I say unto you, the run was made by thumbs and the rescue by the weekend; blessed is the treasurer who knoweth what his bonds are worth today, and not only what he paid for them.

    See also Chronicles 61:2

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 52:1–16.