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So let's dive into this a little bit because I I think more generally and broadly here, two years since the Silicon Valley Bank collapse uh hit financials. How is the financial sector now in those lessons learned, the recovery and now the outlook for the future?

I think the financial sector is doing just fine. I think it's in better shape than it was. And as far as I can tell, the future is reasonably bright.

And so within that, what are the red flags that we should be looking out for to make sure that if there is ever another event like Silicon Valley Bank brewing, how we would be able to anticipate it?

Now, that's a difficult question because I will admit that I had absolutely no idea that this was brewing at Silicon Valley Bank. I was in North Carolina visiting my son in the Marine Corps at the time and uh I picked up the uh newspaper figuratively obviously online and I almost fell off my chair. I did not expect that at all. So I spent a lot of time looking back and trying to figure it out. It could have been anticipated, but it would have required, I think, a financially astute observer and they would have had to study the financial statements. And the financial statements were available. I think the key there would have been noticing two different things. One was, in the course of '21 and '22, a rise in deposits. Number two, a rise in the bank's investments in long-term interest-bearing securities. And um number three, a rise in interest rates. And if a financially astute observer had been looking at those things, which were all available, they could have figured it out.

Right.

And so with that in mind, are there any of the similar instances of banks right now where you're, because those financial statements are also available, are is that kind of taking place at any of the other institutions from what you can measure at this point?

Well, to a certain extent, yes, but I think that those other institutions have taken precautions in the meantime in one form or another. So I don't see anything um that's likely to blow up at any time in the near future. I'm just saying that in that particular case, I was not in a position to figure it out.

Sure.

And so all of this in mind, it was a larger, not just campaign, but also a larger messaging that we're seeing from the financial service sector to remind consumers about the safety of the banking system. How successful has that been? Has it been successful and and our regional banks, uh the ones that are able to operate in any environment, especially in this environment, uh does it seem like they have proven to consumers that they are safe to continue to transact with?

I think so. I think in a general sense, that's true. I would also like to insert here, just to be clear, in Silicon Valley Bank's case, it was not the business model. It was a big error made on the part of what I'd call the Treasury, the CFO, in terms of taking excess deposits and investing in long-term interest-bearing securities. But in general, I think the financial sector has learned a lesson and for the time being anyway, is taking the necessary precautions. That said, I think consumers need to always be ever alert. They need to do their best to become financially sophisticated. They need to listen to folks like you here on Yahoo Finance and they've got to uh uh just keep reading and um questioning.