148 Comments

1. Ugh. We absolutely love banking at First Republic. I knew they would be bought as their management is too strong and the customer service is like banking in the 80’s. People know your name. We opted not to pull out during the run. I know it is a midsize bank. How are these smaller banks going to retain their depositor base if interest rates keep going up? They’ll want more interest on their deposits and might move to one of the big 3. Now Pacific West Bank’s stock dropped 50% today, so they might be going under as well. We are now doing our research for smaller regional banks in CA. How will the small regional banks stay in business with all the media leaks and the public reacting in fear, being manipulated to pull their money and not go with smaller banks? I don’t get why people can’t see all small and medium size businesses on all levels being destroyed.Thoughts?

   1. Listen to Money & Markets. Problem is not in the small banks. It is in the big banks. First Republic was in the top 30. With Herbert retiring and their plumb client base and wealth management, they were ripe for the plucking. And on FedNow.

      1. 1st Republic was an amazing bank. Best customer service that I have ever encountered. No tellers, no teller lines, just customers working with bank employees, one on one. Sorry to see the best of the best be taken down.

         1. I agree completely. Have been dealing with 1st Republic for over 5 years. They provided great services in Europe too during my travels. The bal. sheet looked fine to me as shown in the current Money and Mkts report short of the deposit deficit which was engineered. Could it be possible that “Fed Now” could have been used to move enough “whale” depositor’s funds to engineer the take down?

2. The US SPR is at its lowest since 1983.
   PRO Tip : You can’t print oil.

3. Hot on the heels of Dimon’s shareholder letter, is a theme developing?

   Barclays chairman AGM statement 2023: “Nature and biodiversity are increasingly important areas of focus for Barclays and the wider industry, given that nature and ecosystem services fundamentally underpin our economies and societies and have strong linkage with climate change. We recognise the importance of the finance sector in stewarding responsible finance towards a nature-positive future, including through our engagement with industry groups, and the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures forum. We are pleased to have strengthened our policies to address deforestation in our recently updated Forestry and Agricultural Commodities Statement.”

   Barclays now refusing to bank for (scale) beef farmers. https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/barclays-toughens-deforestation-rules-beef-sector-clients-2023-05-03/

   Are the 2 taskforces ( TNFD and TCFD) te the coordinating bodies behind the carbon aspect of this putsch?

   “The Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), spearheaded by the UK and Swiss Governments and NGOs WWF and Global Canopy, is aiming to publish a reporting framework in 2021. The TNFD will be similar in format to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), launched by Mark Carney and Mike Bloomberg in December 2015 and expanded with a specific framework in 2017.1 The nature-focused TNFD adopts the same pillars as the TCFD, seeking to provide comparable, financially relevant, decision-useful information.”

   Carney clearly ex FSB/BIS as well as BoE and Bank of Canada. A shame. He’s a nice man.

   1. The Reserve Bank of NZ also thinks it can help with climate change, so does all the big banks, our government and even the corporate I work for.

      All captured by ESG policies.

      They are all saving the planet and the climate and minority communities and our mental “wellbeing” one ESG policy report and public statement at a time.

      Scoring those ESG points to ensure their continued funding.

      Someone said ESG is now the ring through the nose of the Wall Street bull.

4. My oldest is 16 and he loves “retro”, offline, gaming consoles that you need another person in the room with you to enjoy. He also listens to the radio on a analog system with a cassette recorder and makes mixed tapes. We have been shopping at a used video game/console store, “Retro Rewind” in the san fernando valley, CA for a couple years (they happily take cash) and it’s always packed with teens and twenty somethings with a splash of old guys like us buying for their kids or grandkids. My husband says it’s the “Revenge of the Nerds” store and he is right! These young Nerds have told me in various conversations that they understand how to enjoy gaming without “government control of our data and minds” and they are going to save America. ; )

5. “On January 25, 2021, the Federal Reserve announced that more than 110 organizations from the FedNow Community will participate in the FedNow Pilot Program. The program will support development, testing and adoption of the FedNow Service, as well as encourage development of services and use cases that leverage FedNow functionality.”
   https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/community/news/012521-announcing-pilot-program-participants.html

6. Catherine,
   Could part of the “return of vinyl” be linked to more people buying dumb phones?
   People are tiring of screens. Perhaps they also recognize that analogue is closer to “real” sound?

7. Starting a about the time John moved, or thereabouts, your weekly video , which is a must watch for me; keeps losing it’s focus…….it’s like John hits a button or something and then within seconds out of focus again. It is quite distracting.

   Thanks,

   LLB

Comments are closed.