Table of Contents
2023-03-23
- Nostr, the decentralized alternative to Twitter
- Jack Dorsey
- co-founder of Block (ticker: SQ)
- Block (ticker: SQ)
- facilitates payment through its widely popular Cash App platform
- Accenture PLC
- 19,000 jobs or 2.5% of its workforce, over the next 18 months
- employs about 738,000 people globally
- Chief Executive Julie Sweet
- IT positions being cut or automated are those in data-center operations and telecommunications
- large skills gap remains in areas like cybersecurity and software development
- Capital One Financial Corp
- laid off 1100 employees in the “agile” group within its technology department
2023-03-22
Notes from https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20230322a.htm
- the federal funds rate is raised to 4-3/4 to 5 percent.
- the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities
Notes from https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20230322a1.htm
- Implementation Note
2023-03-20
Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/credit-suisse-bond-wipeout-threatens-250-billion-market-10be7d04
- AT1 bonds - also known as contingent convertible bonds, or CoCos - were introduced after the financial crisis as a way to transfer banking risk away from taxpayers and onto bondholders.
2023-03-11
- Founders Fund started a capital call.
- Capital call - a VC firm asks its investors, or limited partners, to send it money in order to make investments in startups.
2023-03-10
Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/svb-financial-stock-portfolio-outlook-loss-93287f3d?mod=hp_LEAD_1
- On Friday, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed down Silicon Valley Bank and appointed the FDIC as receiver.
- The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara and immediately transferred all insured deposits of SVB to the DINB at the time of closing.
- FDIC’s standard insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank.
- SVB Financial Group (ticker: SIVB) is the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank
- Nasdaq will delist SVB’s stock
Notes from https://www.xtb.com/int/market-analysis/news-and-research/svb-financial-bank-closed-by-fdic-decision
- SVB was the 18th largest bank in the U.S., with $212 billion in assets
Notes from https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html
- As of December 31, 2022, Silicon Valley Bank had approximately \$209.0 billion in total assets and about \$175.4 billion in total deposits.
- First Republic and Brex - to transfer money out of SVB
- SVB CEO Gregory Becker
Notes from https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1428439/000142843923000010/wk-20230310.htm
- $487 million of Roku's cash is held at SVB. It is all uninsured.
2023-03-07
Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-us-taiwan-conflict-confrontation-a818d490?mod=hp_LEAD_3
- China’s foreign minister Qin Gang
2023-03-06
- Silvergate Capital Corp is based in California.
- money-transfer businesses - MoneyGram International, Western Union
- 82% of Silvergate's deposit base is crypto customers
- highly liquid - Deposits at the Federal Reserve or other banks, short-term Treasury bills
- Large banks must keep enough high-quality liquid assets to cover 30-days’ worth of deposit withdrawals under stressed conditions.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co., for example, held \$733 billion of such assets at the end of 2022 against \$2.3 trillion of diverse, traditional deposits.
- Three-quarters of those liquid assets were on deposit at the Fed and other banks, the rest was in a mix of Treasuries, and government-sponsored mortgage bonds.
2023-03-03
Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/crypto-silvergate-bank-bitcoin-ea6943b4?mod=hp_LEAD_1
- Silvergate Capital
- ticker = SI
- warned about its ability to “continue as a going concern.”
- based in La Jolla, Calif
- founded in the late 1980s
- had $14.3 billion in deposits at the end of 2021
- deposits dropped to $3.8 billion in Q4 2022
- created the “Silvergate Exchange Network” (SEN)
- to handle transfers of traditional currency between its customers
- In Q4 2021, it handled $219.2 billion in U.S. dollar transfers
- By 2021, it had 94 crypto exchanges and 894 institutional investors as customers
- Made U.S. dollar loans to customers who posted Bitcoin as collateral
- The SEN network allowed crypto companies to avoid ACH transfers
- slippage - the difference between the price at which a trade is expected to happen and where it actually executes
- Signature Bank (SBNY)
- Runs a network similar to SEN
2023-02-28
- Augusta, Georgia is known for hosting the US Masters golf tournament
- two-hour drive east of Atlanta
- Home to a military base, universities and power plants
- big market for rentals
- the median home price in Jacksonville, Florida is less than half that of California
- Sun Belt states
2023-02-27
- At the end of 2021, China held 383,935 acres of land in the US
- pork producer Smithfield Foods
- There is a chart that shows the agricultural landholdings by country at the end of 2021. The source of the data in the chart is US Department of Agriculture.
- China's population is 4 times that of US.
- Secretary of Agriculture
- the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US
- oversees inbound investment
2023-02-16
Notes from https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-021623?mod=article_inline
- The producer price index measures wholesale inflation
Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/treasury-yields-bonds-inflation-995b9911
- The two-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD02Y
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/cash-flow/critical-difference-profit-cash-flow/ - explains the difference between cash flow vs. profit. Easy to understand.
2023-02-07
Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackstones-hefty-concession-is-a-warning-to-investors-11672840068 dated 2023-01-04
- University of California’s endowment, known as UC Investments
- put $4 billion into BREIT fund, locked up for five years with a two-year limited withdrawal period afterward, for an average of six years
- BREIT fund
- fees for small private investors - 1.25% a year and 12.5% of profits
- chose to focus on Sunbelt housing, warehouses and data centers
- In December 2022, investors asked for 5.44% of the fund back, but only 0.23% was available because of withdrawals in the two prior months.
- Blackstone will use up to $1 billion to pay UC Investments if it fails to earn 11.25% a year after fees.
- During the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Warren Buffet put $5 billion into Goldman Sachs for 10% annual dividend and option to buy discounted shares
2023-02-01
Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/gold-prices-gaining-how-to-invest-51675211440?mod=hp_LEADSUPP_2
- Inflation usually helps gold, but a strong U.S. dollar and rising interest rates can hurt it.
- State Street Global Advisors, or SSGA
- manages the $57 billion SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)
2023-01-31
- The total valuation of India’s stocks has dropped to $3.2 trillion, or 3.1% of the global share market capitalization.
- So global share market cap is $103.23 (= 3.2 * 100 / 3.1) trillion?
- Foreigners have been net sellers of India for most of January
- Global funds pulled a net $784 million from Indian shares on Jan. 25 and Jan. 27
- Life Insurance Corp. of India, the country’s biggest insurer
- Anchor investor
Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/whole-foods-asks-suppliers-to-lower-prices-as-costs-ebb-11675115155
- Whole Foods Market
- Rival grocers - Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos.
- discounters - Aldi Inc. and Trader Joe’s
- Operates more than 500 stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
- merchandising teams that oversee categories of products
2023-01-20
Notes from https://www.reuters.com/business/softbanks-66-bln-sale-arm-nvidia-collapses-ft-2022-02-08/
- Arm
- would go public before March 2023
- SoftBank acquired Arm in 2016 for $32 billion
- Jeff Dean leads Google’s artificial intelligence and research efforts
- data platform for care teams, called Google for Clinicians
- The robotics unit
- will cut 12,000 jobs (6% of its global workforce)
- AI is a “key investment area”
- Google spokesperson Jason Freidenfelds
- ChatGPT from the research lab OpenAI
- ChatGPT prompted Google’s management to declare a “code red” within the company
2023-01-17
- IDR Investment Management - tracks an index of the open-end diversified core equity funds
- John Murray, head of global private commercial real estate at PIMCO
2023-01-12
- Subway
- based in Milford, Connecticut
- 37,000 locations in more than 100 countries
- first shop opened in 1965
- 20,000 US locations
2023-01-11
- Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital
- venture firms like Sequoia Capital
- an investor who buys claims from creditors in bankruptcies
- Genesis Digital
- one of the world’s largest bitcoin miners
- two German co-founders
- Marco Streng and Marco Krohn
- three Kazakh entrepreneurs
- commodities giant Trafigura Group
2023-01-03
- Cardiac arrest is when the heart abruptly stops beating.
- It occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions.
- Abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias can be triggered by congenital defects, heart damage and certain medications
- arrhythmias can lead to cardiac arrest
- ventricular fibrillation, a serious type of arrhythmia
- commotio cordis
- Both heart attack and heart failure can lead to cardiac arrest. But they are separate conditions.
- A heart attack occurs when blood flow, which carries oxygen, to the heart muscle is reduced or stopped. It is usually caused by blockages in the coronary arteries.
- Symptoms of a heart attack can include chest pain, shortness of breath and pain in the arms and back
- Heart failure is a chronic and progressive condition in which the heart can’t effectively pump blood around the body. Possible contributors include build-up in the coronary arteries, previous heart attacks, high blood pressure, obesity, congenital defects, lung disease and diabetes.
- Cardiac arrest is sudden and characterized by abrupt collapse and loss of consciousness. A person in cardiac arrest will have no pulse and won’t be breathing.
- Defibrillator is a device that delivers an electric shock to the heart and can restore a normal heartbeat in cardiac arrest patients
- While waiting for a defibrillator to arrive, CPR should be administered.
- Chest compressions can help to manually circulate blood, which can be life-saving to a person whose heart is not beating properly.
- Everyone should learn how to administer CPR and use an AED (automated external defibrillator).
- Cardiac arrest is usually fatal. Fewer than 12% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive. CPR significantly increases the odds of survival.