First Republic, the third bank in a row to collapse in less than two months, failed over the weekend before regulators arranged for its sale to J.P. Morgan Chase on Monday morning.

Prior to its collapse on Monday, First Republic maintained nearly $230 billion in assets, eclipsing the Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. Already the nation’s second largest bank failure, First Republic’s failure comes as one of the fourth largest bank failure in U.S. history.

In a near media blackout of the historic event, Bloomberg’s live news channel replayed rerun interviews with Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s Chief Financial Officer followed by the same with Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s Chief Executive Officer. Neither of these replayed rerun interviews touched upon the looming banking crisis, let alone First Republic’s collapse.

In the section marked, “What’s News,” which is located on the left hand column of the Wall Street Journal, there is no entry for First Republic on Monday’s print edition of the newspaper.

In the weeks leading up to First Republic’s eventual failure, the Wall Street Journal, whose front pages appear to be an advertising agency for LVMH, ran no less than two stories about Bernard Arnault, the oligarch of luxury. In the first story, entitled “World’s Richest Person Tests His Children as Successors,” the Wall Street Journal, detailed the oligarch’s esoteric rituals for selecting members of his family to occupy high ranking positions in his dynasty. Published on Thursday, April 20th, 2023, the first in a series merely prepared the groundwork for a feature on Saturday, April 29th, where “Billionaire Soaks In View From New Tiffany Perch.”

Between the laurels heaped upon the oligarch of luxury, the Wall Street Journal ran only one story on Wednesday April 26th, 2023: “First Republic Stock Plunges 49%.” The article is remarkable for a quote from White House Chief of Staff, Jeff Zients.

In an interview with the Journal, Zients stated: “ As we have seen over the last several weeks, deposits have stabilized and I think we do believe that the system overall is sound and resilient.” Zients’ statement is a reflection of the banking system’s response to First Republic’s failure overall.

In the days following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, for instance, multiple banks came together to issue a declaration of confidence in First Republic.

On March 16th, 2023, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BNY Mellon, PNC Bank, State Street, Truist and U.S. Bank announced an uninsured deposit into First Republic totaling no less than $30 billion.

In the declaration, banks stated, “This action by America’s largest banks reflects their confidence in First Republic and in banks of all sizes, and it demonstrates their overall commitment to helping banks serve their customers and communities. Regional, midsize and small banks are critical to the health and functioning of our financial system.”

In response, the Treasury Department said: “This show of support by a group of large banks is most welcome, and demonstrates the resilience of the banking system.”

First Republic’s collapse is a repudiation of the confidence the banking system, if not the White House Chief of Staff or the Treasury Department, sought to instill in the populace.

On Monday President Biden that the U.S. financial system is “safe and sound” thanks to the actions of federal regulators, who arranged First Republic’s sale to J.P. Morgan Chase.

“Folks, we have to make sure that we’re not back in this position again, and I think we’re well on our way to be able to make that assurance,” Biden said. 

First Republic relied heavily on wealthy clients, with more than two-thirds of its deposits surpassing the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance limit. While that was a lower ratio than at SVB, it was higher than other regional banks. Many commentators have pointed to the disparity as prompting depositors to withdraw.

The explanation that First Republic’s failure is a result of diffidence among depositors merely begs the question. The idea that the lack of insurance on more than two third of the banks’ accounts motivated the run on deposits is a tautology. Two thirds of Federal Republic’s accounts prior to March 2023 could not boast of the protection the FDIC later extended to any account anyway. The problem was not a lack of insurance.

It is much deeper. Despite Jamie Diamond rushing to declare that “First Republic is not 2008,” the fact of the matter stands. J.P. Morgan Chase’s attempt to rescue First Republic failed. First Republic’s failure is, nonetheless, a perpetuation of the ever looming danger of the 2008 global crisis.

It is not merely that “we’re not back in this position again.” The great ancient pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus, for instance, stated that you never enter the same river twice. The problem is altogether different now.

First Republic’s failure both reflects and contributes to the deepening of America’s existential crisis. The existential struggle of the United States is no where more obvious than in an examination of the historical trajectory of the United States’ economic development, the most condensed explanation of which may be understood almost entirely on the basis of the cause and effect of mergers and acquisitions since the end of the Civil War.

The series of mergers and acquisitions—the first between 1873–1895 climaxed in 1898–1904, the second between 1916–1929, the third between 1965 –1969, the fourth between 1984–1989, which arose out of and deepened the “essentially parasitic, destructive, criminal modus operandi” of financial parasitism, and the fifth wave, which began in 1992, led ultimately to the 2008 global crisis, the ever looming danger of which is a major impetus for the surging pursuit of an opportunity to “offset” its ever deepening consequences with imperialist plunder, especially in Ukraine.

Although coincidence does not entail correlation, as statisticians warn, the fact that First Republic’s failure fell on May Day is opportunity to consider the enormous power of the working class to oppose the anarchy of capitalism with a planned economy. None of the underlying cause of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis have been resolved in anyway.

While May Day witnessed strikes, organized labor actions, or protests throughout the world, the vast majority of these activities proceeded in the complete absence of any leadership.

In France, for instance, protesters, whose protests have not had a substantial effect on the outcome of Emmanuel Macron’s insistence on an increase in the age of retirement from 62 to 64, the pressing need for workers to assemble around a call for a political general strike could not be more obvious now than at the time of Macron’s announcement.

In Tunisia, where the absolutely corrupt Tunisian dictator, Kaïs Saïed, is arresting political opponents who are deprived of the right to habeas corpus, the Maghreb’s gem from the Arab Spring sadly reflects the lack of technical revolutionary skill required to hammer diamonds from the rough into a state of the workers, for the workers, by the workers. Not just Tunisia but workers from the countries in the Maghreb must closely study the lessons of the Arab Spring, especially the one on leadership.

In country after country, the pressing need for members of the working class to elect a leadership to assert its rights is as ominous as the continuation of the Ukraine war, whose effects from the elimination of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency to a shift in the entire geopolitical makeup of the Middle East are as far reaching as they are deep, threatens to drive the whole of mankind into a human catastrophe.