■ SVB Bankruptcy Due to Bank Run 

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th-largest bank by assets in the United States, went bankrupt, causing a stir in the financial market.

SVB is a bank with ventures and IT companies as its main customers. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, it has boomed due to ultra-low interest rates and government support, but collapsed due to the "Bank Run (large withdrawal of deposits)" incident on March 10th. 

Analysts say that the Bank Run crisis may have been affected by the implementation of the U.S.  Federal Reserve Board (FRB)'s high-interest policy and the reduction of venture capital. As interest rates rose, the price of bonds held by SVB fell, and they suffered huge losses as they sold bonds at low prices to withdraw money to depositors. 

Most customers will not be able to protect the funds which they have deposited to SVB. This is because the limit of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is $250,000. In particular, there are also concerns that failure to withdraw deposits could lead to massive layoffs due to the high proportion of venture customers.

■ Reforms that 70% or More Oppose

Although nearly 70% of the French people oppose the pension reform, President Macron's determination is still firm. 

On January 25th, Elabé French pollster released the results. The main goal of French pension reform is to extend the retirement age from 62 to 64. The plan is to prevent the depletion of funds by allowing them to receive pensions after working longer. In fact, CNN analyzed that France will have a loss in pension funds of about 13,500,000,000 euros by 2030.

The problem is the tendency of the French to emphasize the work-life balance. According to the Associated Press News (AP News), young generation manual workers, and career-interrupted women are strongly opposing this policy. This is because the pension reform directly prolongs their working hours. They have been protesting since January with massive strikes and protests across the country. The Paris subway, Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), flights, and world-class tourist attractions such as the Eiffel Tower and Versailles Palace have also gone on strike and are currently unavailable. French authorities are responding with 5,000 police officers in Paris and 12,000 nationwide.

■ Painful, Worst Fine Dust

There are voices complaining for pain due to Thai slash-and-burn field practices and the fine dust caused by forest fires. 

According to the Thai Department of Health (DH), 1,449,716 respiratory diseases occurred in Thailand this year due to air pollution alone. Among them, the proportion of Bangkok residents is about 2%, which is 31,695. According to air quality analysis company IQAir on March 11th, Bangkok's Air Quality Index (AQI) was the third worst in the world. Chiang Mai, located in northern Thailand, was also diagnosed as "very bad" with AQI 212. The concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was 161.3㎍/㎥. 

The causes of the serious fine dust are the local farmers' slash-and-burn field practices and forest fires. Since most farmers have continued their lives through slash-and-burn field agriculture, it is not easy to root out their practices. The Thai government is working on countermeasures by using dozens of sprinkler trucks to spray water throughout the streets. Although the manpower and equipment are mobilized to evolve the forest fires caused by the fires, such as attempting artificial rainfall, it seems difficult to solve it quickly.

■ Is This Judicial Reform or Incapacitation?

People of Israel's anti-government protests against Israel's right-wing coalition government have continued for 13 weeks (as of March 30th). 

According to Israeli media Haaretz, the Netanyahu government proposed a judicial reform plan on January 12th, saying the court had excessive authority. The move is aimed at curtailing the Supreme Court's authority to neutralize judicialization. A key demand was overturning certain Supreme Court rulings with a simple majority vote and strengthening congressional influence in appointing Supreme Court justices. 

Citizens have expressed anger over the proposed judicial reform. Currently, the Israeli parliament has a majority (64 out of 120 seats) in the right-wing coalition government, so virtually all power is given to the government. Even Netanyahu has been accused of bribery and fraud in 2019. On CNN, a citizen said, “The judicial reform is aimed at saving only Netanyahu prime minister. The current government is undermining the core values of democracy.” Currently, opposition parties, lawyers, and civic groups have defined it as a “judicial coup.”

Reporter Lim Chae-Kyung

Translated by Lim Chae-Kyung