Wall Street pal Larry Summers borrows NRA language to say now isn't the time for 'moral hazard lectures' on bank failures

Once referred to as economic royalty by The American Prospect, the pro-Wall Street, big bank ally Larry Summers borrowed language the NRA often uses after mass shootings to apply it to the failures of Silicon Valley Bank.

Summers, a frequent foe of progressives, took to Twitter on Sunday to equate the bank's failure with "the fog of war." While a lot of corporations have lost hefty sums of cash, no one has been killed by the bank yet.

"I hope and trust that the authorities are on a path to doing what is necessary to restore confidence," Summers said. "Acting decisively and rapidly is both the cheapest for taxpayers and the best for the economy. Failure to act strongly enough would be a Lehman-like error. It is a clear imperative that all #SVB segregated assets and uninsured deposits be fully backed by Monday morning. Also, imperative that sufficient support be provided to other banks to insure full availability of deposited funds across the banking system. This is not the time for moral hazard lectures or for lesson administering or for alarm about the political consequences of 'bailouts.'"

The idea of saying that after a massive banking flop like SVB is the wrong time to discuss tighter rules or regulations on banks is like saying that after a mass shooting isn't the right time to talk about gun reform, said former Democratic Party strategist Greg

Summers was the economic adviser who helped repeal the Glass-Steagall Act in the 1990s, which was the law passed in the 1930s that helped regulate banks to ensure commercial banking and investment companies were separate. When more banks and mortgage companies failed in the 2007 and 2008 crisis, Summers was one pushing President Barack Obama to bail out the big banks. By 2009, Summers was still saying that Wall Street needed more money.

"Mr. Summers might be the former government official most responsible for neoliberal disasters such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and China’s permanent normal trade relations, which offshored U.S. supply chains, jobs and good wages," Former Johns Hopkins associate professor Charles W. McMillion wrote to the Washington Post. "Last year’s world record of more than $1 trillion in trade deficits for goods reflects today’s bottlenecks and shortage-driven inflation."