Analysis: Silicon Valley Bank's Fall Widens Systemic Cracks As Cheap Money Vanishes | David Randall And Davide Barbuscia

NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) - Cracks are appearing in the global financial system as the decade-long era of cheap money ends, with some investors worrying the shock collapse of Silicon Valley Bank signals world markets may be on the cusp of a reckoning.

Over the past year, the U.S. Federal Reserve launched its most aggressive interest rate hiking cycle since the early 1980s and other central banks joined in, leaving global investors to face a gamut of consequences.

They have seen the longest selloff in technology shares since the dotcom bubble at the turn of the millennium, a collapse in the cryptocurrency industry, a run on U.S. and British real estate funds and an intervention by the Bank of England to prevent a near-collapse of British pension funds.

After the second largest bank failure in U.S. history on Friday, market participants worry more disruptions lay ahead, as climbing interest rates cut off access to cheap money and expose vulnerabilities in the economy.

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