It honestly seems like the best solution here is for a large bank like JP Morgan or Goldman to acquire SVB over the weekend and guarantee their deposits. SVB isn’t insolvent if their debt assets can be held to term, but the duration mismatch in assets and liabilities, and declining value of some of those assets due to interest rate increases, caused a liquidity shortfall. But of all the types of financial problems a bank can incur, that seems like the easiest to fix via acquisition. Guarantee the deposits, restore confidence, the panic goes away, and the asset portfolio can be restructured appropriately.

The benefit to the larger bank is that SVB’s customer base represents a large chunk of the most innovative sector of the US economy and beyond. And scientific and technological innovation is going to have be one of the main drivers of economic growth in the world as the developing world becomes developed and their growth rates inevitably slow. Acquiring SVB at cost seems like a great deal in that regard, and stops a panic as nice side effect.