Marc A. Thiessen sought to piggyback on Ronald Reagan’s warning that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are,“I’m from the government and I’’m here to help” (“Big Government set the stage for bank’s collapse,” Star-Advertiser, March 17).

Surprisingly, Thiessen initially claimed that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was “a direct result of its own gross mismanagement,” a charge he repeated in his concluding remarks.

But his emphasis shifted. He blamed the errors in management on the government’s mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic and its misguided efforts to control the “worst inflation in 40 years.”

To help sort this out, I called a conservative friend of mine who was a former loan officer and vice president of a bank branch. His response to the above was emphatic: Management was clearly at fault. They hadn’t sought to cover their exposure and only 7% of their interests were insured. “They have only to blame themselves.”

The next time Thiessen seeks to set the stage to critique others, he should make sure he knows what he is talking about.

Mark Helbling

Manoa

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