Jon Stewart and Mark Cuban Debate Silicon Valley Bank Collapse: ‘These Are Not Mom and Pop Investors’

A conversation between Jon Stewart and Mark Cuban on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was abruptly cut off after the latter mentioned the “entire banking system of the world,” inspiring a mini-panic in Stewart.

Cuban joined The Problem with Jon Stewart to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the federal government coming forward to guarantee deposits in the bank. Former FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) Chair Sheila Bair also joined the conversation, and she and Stewart were less enthusiastic about some rich investors being insured by the government.

Cuban argued against claims the bank’s rich stockholders are being bailed out. If one owned shares in Silicon Valley Bank or any part of the company’s debt, “that’s money’s gone, never to be seen again,” Cuban said. The Shark Tank star and entrepreneur did not have money directly tied up with Silicon Valley Bank but a company connected to him did.

Cuban argued shareholders are losing big with the collapse, which Stewart pushed back on.

“The shareholders have taken a haircut of a loss and they are last in line,” the comedian said.

“They’re not even in line. It’s not like there was this big saving where we bailed out and the shareholders and all the tech bros came out okay. They got crushed, they got crushed. There is —” Cuban said before Stewart jumped back in.

“Well, I think that’s a little misleading because these are not average depositors so for the people that are going to be getting their money back because it’s not fully guaranteed by the United States, there are people there who had hundreds of millions of dollars. I mean you’ve got Roku that had, I don’t know, $500 million in there. These are not mom and pop investors,” he said.

When Cuban responded, he was cut off after opening with “the entire banking system of the world —”

“Oh, did we lose him? Son of a bitch. He just said ‘the entire banking system of the world’ and then we lost him! Holy shit! Now what do we do? Mark Cuban just created a bank run! The entire banking system of the world…” Stewart joked.

“I’m sure he was going to be say that it’s perfectly safe and sound,” Bair said.

Cuban, who was calling into the show from his plane, made his way back onto the show a few minutes later and chalked up Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse on regulatory failure, though he was then cut off again.

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