“We’ve Seen the End of Times”: Tom Michaud on Market Extremes, IPO Red Flags, and 9/11

“We’ve Seen the End of Times”: Tom Michaud on Market Extremes, IPO Red Flags, and 9/11

From The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost by Paradine Productions

June 3, 2026 · 56 min · Season 1 · Episode 60

About this episode

Tom Michaud discusses market extremes, banking resilience, and the warning signs of a potential banking crisis.

What separates a temporary market pullback from a systemic, catastrophic collapse? And how do the world’s greatest financial institutions build the resilience required to survive the absolute "end of times"? In this episode of The Master Investor Podcast, Wilfred Frost sits down with Tom Michaud, the CEO of banking and finance specialists Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW). Tom has spent over 40 years at KBW studying the banking sector, leading KBW through its 2006 IPO and subsequent 2013 acquisition by Stifel Financial. As the head of the industry's premier financial services investment bank, Tom brings unique insight into what’s happening under the surface of markets today and where the next major "torpedo in the ocean" is hiding. Wilfred and Tom map out the critical warning signs of a banking crisis, tracing the common threads between the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and the sudden collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic in 2023. Tom explains the danger of unbridled growth for a bank especially when driven by uninsured deposits and fuelled by leverage. The biggest indicator to watch is credit turning south and “we should all know a credit normalisation is coming…

People in this episode

Host: Wilfred Frost

Guest: Tom Michaud

Topics covered

  • market pullback
  • banking crisis
  • IPO red flags
  • financial resilience
  • credit normalization
  • private credit sector
  • bank M&A

Keywords

  • market collapse
  • financial institutions
  • credit risk
  • banking sector
  • regulatory reset
  • uninsured deposits
  • leverage

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Stifel Financial

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