[fidgewidge]

it should appear clear that fear is very contagious

This can be true, and the Fed's move can be the right one, and it can still be case that the system has been dishonestly socialized by the back door and that this will have terrible long term consequences. It can also be that the Fed's fears were overblown and that in fact letting SVB and a few other similar banks fail would not wreck the entire system.

Equity and debt holders have been completely wiped out.

Only those who were bag holding at the moment of collapse. There will have been plenty of equity and debt holders who profited from SVB's risk-taking behavior and got out in time to realize that profit. The lesson bank equity holders will learn here is not that banks need to be more careful. It's that you can set up a bank, drive custom and profit with hyper-risky tactics, and as long as you sell your stake before the fraud collapses you'll not only get away scott free but nobody will even care because the large numbers of angry people who might organize politically to get justice will all be bought off by taxes on everyone else.