More rugged individualism for thee but not me Watching the fallout from the Silicion Valley Bank failure. (I’m not a financial expert.) “And this isn’t a bailout,” Cuban insists. David Dayen replies: Funny story about #2, Mark. The regulators were watching until 2018, when SVB and other banks lobbied to send the regulators home, and convinced Republicans (and 50 Democrats) to do it. Your favorite people warned that it would go badly. It did. The Lever notes that SVB President Greg Becker lobbied against further oversight of his bank: In 2015, SVB President Greg Becker appeared before a Senate panel to push legislators to exempt more banks — including his own — from new regulations passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Despite warnings from some senators, Becker’s lobbying effort was ultimately successful. Touting “SVB’s deep understanding of the markets it serves, our strong risk management practices,” Becker argued that his bank would soon reach $50 billion in assets, which under the law would trigger “enhanced prudential standards,” including more stringent regulations, stress tests, and capital requirements for his and other similarly sized banks. In his testimony, Becker insisted that $250 billion was a more appropriate threshold. “Without such changes, SVB likely will need to divert significant resources from providing financing to job-creating companies in the innovation economy to complying with enhanced prudential standards and other requirements,” said Becker, who reportedly sold $3.6 million of his own stock two weeks ago, in the lead-up to the bank’s collapse. “Given the low risk profile of…