The failure of Silicon Valley Bank is an acute reminder that banks can and do fail. For investors and even bank customers it’s important to understand what happened, what is the potential fallout might be longer term and what could potentially break next.

The Federal Reserve may pause interest rate increases to let the dust settle and not create more of a crisis. A pause will likely result in a brief rally for stocks. We do have to fully rein in inflation and that will take time. Until we see significant improvement in inflation data, rates will have to go higher, and the Fed may break more things.