Are Americans Ready to Storm the Bastille? (dailyreckoning.com)

“Give a man a gun and he will rob a bank,” claimed fictional television character Tyrell Wellick, adding pithily:

“Give a man a bank and he will rob everyone.”

The bank — the banking system — will shortly be robbing everyone. This it will do to make whole the moneyed depositors of Silicon Valley Bank, presently in receivership.

The regulatory authorities insist the robbing is not a “bailout.” That is because the taxpayer is not being tapped directly on the shoulder. And it is true, he is not.

Yet the taxpayer is likely an account holder. And the costs imposed upon the banks to make whole the moneyed depositors of Silicon Valley Bank they will passing along to the account holder in the form of higher surcharges and fees.

It constitutes an indirect robbery — a robbery at one remove.

It is nonetheless a robbery.