How Silicon Valley Turned on Silicon Valley Bank

Max Cho found himself in the middle of a bank run while sitting on a shuttle bus in Montana. The co-founder of insurance startup Coverage Cat, Mr. Cho had landed at the Bozeman airport Thursday and boarded the bus for the hourlong drive to a startup founders’ retreat in Big Sky.

Mr. Cho took his seat and scanned the group.

A Chinese automaker’s plan to pay cash rewards to people exposing internet trolls has backfired, with social-media critics saying it should have spent the money making better cars. Great Wall Motor Co., best known for making sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks, on Friday announced a 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) program to reward people who alert it to organized or paid internet trolling against any Chinese automaker.

US Discusses Fund to Backstop Deposits If More Banks Fail

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve are weighing creating a fund that would allow regulators to backstop more deposits at banks that run into trouble following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. Regulators discussed the new special vehicle in conversations with banking executives, according to people familiar with the matter. The hope is that setting up such a vehicle would reassure depositors and help contain any panic, said the people.

Yellen Says U.S. Will Hit the Debt Limit Soon. This Is What’s at Stake. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told U.S. lawmakers the federal government was projected to reach its debt limit next Thursday, marking a starting point for what is likely to be a long and tense battle in a divided government.

The consumer-price index gained 6.5% year over year in December, in line with economists’ consensus estimate and lower than November’s result of 7.1%. Core CPI, which strips out the more volatile food and energy prices, rose 5.7%, below the prior result of 6%. It is yet another result that shows cooling inflation, with the CPI comfortably down from its just over 9% peak hit in the middle of last year.