patrick.net

So basically banking where all your friends and people in the same business bank is not very good idea, because it makes your situation less diversified overall.

https://www.leefang.com/p/diversity-activists-helped-first?publication_id=1239256&post_id=118594204&isFreemail=true

The simmering bank crisis has also cast new light on the role of diversity groups that work to mask corporate interests as they shape public policy.

The National Diversity Coalition in particular has a curious history of intervening on behalf of corporate interests while purporting to represent minority communities. The group touts itself as an "empowering voice for our nation's minority and low-income communities," in support of "African American, Asian, and Latino advocacy and civil organizations."

Yet the organization stands out for its role as a vehicle for corporate influence peddling under the banner of advancing racial diversity.

Indeed, the National Diversity Coalition has lent its moral veneer to controversial corporate stances on animal rights, the gig economy, clean energy, and antitrust policy. In 2021, the group lobbied against new animal welfare standards that mandate minimum space requirements for breeding pigs. The California law, the National Diversity Coalition claimed, would harm "Asian and Latino families who rely on pork as their primary source of protein."

In similar fashion, Bautista's group filed a brief to California state courts on behalf of Uber and Lyft in 2020. The National Diversity Coalition sought to overturn a ruling that would have allowed rideshare drivers to qualify for the state minimum wage and other standard labor protections, claiming such rules would somehow harm “workers of color.”

In 2019, the National Diversity Coalition lobbied regulators to approve the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. The telecom merger, Bautista wrote in a letter to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, "holds tremendous potential to greatly benefit people of color throughout California."

Bautista, who did not respond to requests for comment, has a remarkable knack for winning corporate board appointments to firms that benefit from her diversity-branded lobbying. She serves on the special advisory boards of First Republic Bank, T-Mobile and PG&E.

Glad I did not buy any shares even at $7. Saw that First Republic Bank got bought out. Seems like there is an effort to consolidate the mid level banks by being bought out by top tier banks.

This is like the defense industry in the 1990s such as all the defense companies merging, consolidating and getting bought out.

Look at how much of a buying spree Ken Kresa at Northrop was on during the mid to late 1990s.

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It's also like the consolidation in banks that happened in the 1930's, 1990's, and 2008. You can't introduce CDBC's without consolidating all the banks into the original NY cartel banks.

The wonders of central banking economies!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hsbc-gets-1-2bn-boost-060426672.html

Shares in US banks suspended as fresh crisis fears grip market

Shares in two regional US banks have been paused amid fresh concerns about the health of the financial sector in the wake of the rescue of First Republic.

PacWest Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp halted trading in their equities today after suffering share price falls of 24pc and 20pc respectively.

Another boutique bullshit bank. "Oh, they were so focused on customer care, made their clients feel sooo special and it made them soooo loyal to their special bank....". Right.

Wells Fargo has been kind of creepy for a while. I keep the account because it is a few decades old business account that costs nothing, as it has gone through several bank mergers from other banks from where it started, but they continue to honor it on mostly the original terms, which you can't get any more.

Every time I go into a branch, all of the suited minions remind me of arch vampires, examining and sniffing me. They have developed a very strange corporate culture.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/02/pacwest-falls-30percent-as-regional-banks-stocks-slide-to-new-lows.html

More bad news for PacWest as the bank consolidation in preparation for the CDBC continues...

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/pacwest-shares-crash-after-reporting-deposit-flight-accelerated-last-week

"“Almost half of the 4,800 banks in the US are nearly insolvent, as they have burned through their capital buffers, The Telegraph reported earlier this week, citing a group of banking experts. According to Professor Amit Seru, a banking expert at Stanford University, around half of US lenders are underwater. . . .Around 2,315 banks across the US are currently sitting on assets worth less than their liabilities, according to a Hoover Institution report by Professor Seru and a group of banking experts, as cited by the media. The market value of the loan portfolios of these lenders is reportedly $2 trillion lower than the stated book value.” From RT"

https://www.rt.com/business/575878-half-us-banks-insolvent/

NuttBoxer says

The market value of the loan portfolios of these lenders is reportedly $2 trillion lower than the stated book value.”

That $2T+ will show up in inflation sooner or later.

Yes, the Fed will just buy the crap loans with money they just printed, sticking all of us with the inflation bill every day.

The Fed should not exist.

Blue says

That $2T+ will show up in inflation sooner or later.

Sooner.

Yep, bankruptcy and a return to fiscal responsibility, or hyperinflation. There are no other options.

I hope that second outcome makes everyone here think long and hard about their assets that are worthless without the dollar.

Just because interest rates were extremely low during the last cycle, doesn't mean they can't go lower than that.

In Europe and Japan, you had negative interest rates. Yes, their populations put up with that nonsense.

There can be a huge amount of debt created if we allow negative interest rates.

Misc says

There can be a huge amount of debt created if we allow negative interest rates.

Negative interest rates can happen during deflation when no one wants to borrow because they will be paying back with more valuable dollars. Not likely to happen during inflationary times.

HeadSet says

Misc says

There can be a huge amount of debt created if we allow negative interest rates.

Negative interest rates can happen during deflation when no one wants to borrow because they will be paying back with more valuable dollars. Not likely to happen during inflationary times.

I'd say it's a function of a large amount of money circulating pared with risk aversion. When EU and US were heavily engaged in QE, negative rates happened ion the EU for some t-bills cause the banks were literally saying, please take our money and invest!

Misc says

Just because interest rates were extremely low during the last cycle, doesn't mean they can't go lower than that.

Then why have they gone higher? The Fed would have preferred they stayed low, makes inflation easier. Ahh, but free market says a correction must come, so it does. The control you speak of isn't possible.

mell says

negative rates happened ion the EU for some t-bills cause the banks were literally saying, please take our money and invest!

That was actually done by the ECB as a ploy to lower the value of the Euro.

Regional banks stocks were damaged the most by the Fed Funds rate rising from 0.25% to 5.5% and to the highest level in 22 years. Many had long term US Treasuries as assets which dropped in value. Perhaps they will rally in 2024 or 2025 just like beaten down healthcare and energy stocks.



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@ad Is that an image of market cap of all stocks? If so, holy shit - that means that something close to a third of the whole market is just a few big tech stocks.

Where did you get that image from?

Patrick says

Where did you get that image from?

That map is of the S&P500 market cap. It does give one pause when you see the entire energy sector is slightly smaller than Microsoft...
https://finviz.com/map.ashx

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/shares-of-nycb-fall-more-than-10percent-after-bank-discloses-internal-controls-issue-ceo-change.html

Shares of NYCB fall more than 20% after bank discloses ‘internal controls’ issue, CEO change

The US hasn't had a functional economy beginning in 1987 when the PPT (Plunge Protection Committee) was first formed to deal with the 500 point drop in the DJIA. With the 2009 housing meltdown, the Fed assumed unlimited authority to buy up any assets in any quantity to "maintain price stability."

EJ from iTulip gave up on predicting the economy because he was convinced that it was essentially non-functional and purely run on inputs from the government and the Fed.

Hell, just look at gold. The conclusion to the Triffin Dilemma is right behind the Fed curtain. Once the curtain rises . . .

Patrick says

ad Is that an image of market cap of all stocks? If so, holy shit - that means that something close to a third of the whole market is just a few big tech stocks.

Where did you get that image from?

The heat map is from the FinViz website. It is the S&P 500. True Patrick, as I think the top 10 stocks of the S&P 500 make up about 39% of its market cap.

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stereotomy says

EJ from iTulip gave up on predicting the economy because he was convinced that it was essentially non-functional and purely run on inputs from the government and the Fed.

Hell, just look at gold. The conclusion to the Triffin Dilemma is right behind the Fed curtain. Once the curtain rises . .

True as its a central planned or rigged economy. The Fed can come in and buy up US Treasuries when the federal government goes on a spending spree to ward off a recession.

At least in 2000 during the dot.com bust, a lot of bad companies (and bad debt) like Garden.com and Pets.com dissolved. They were plenty of other "jobbers" that eventually gone to the wayside including even Yahoo and AOL.

Winning companies or "non-ringers" made out of the dot com bust like Amazon and Microstrategy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_party#Resurgence

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zzyzzx says

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/shares-of-nycb-fall-more-than-10percent-after-bank-discloses-internal-controls-issue-ceo-change.html

Shares of NYCB fall more than 20% after bank discloses ‘internal controls’ issue, CEO change

Deja vu all over again ...the next Silicon Valley Bank now is New York Community Bank

how more insolvent or distressed regional banks are out there ?

Maybe when the Fed Funds rate gets lowered from 5.5% to 4.5% when the 6 month simple moving average for PCE is below 3% then the regional banks with long term Treasuries as assets will not be in as much distressed conditions.

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Philadelphia Bank just failed.

https://fortune.com/2024/04/26/philadelphia-bank-implodes-failure/

Regulators have closed Republic First Bank, a regional lender operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it had seized the Philadelphia-based bank, which did business as Republic Bank and had roughly $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of Jan. 31.

Fulton Bank, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to assume substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of its assets, the agency said.

Republic Bank’s 32 branches will reopen as branches of Fulton Bank as early as Saturday. Republic First Bank depositors can access their funds via checks or ATMs as early as Friday night, the FDIC said.

The bank’s failure is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $667 million.

Local credit union where I live has been taken over. Was already under restrictions about how much debt they could have due to failed audit(?) or similar by Feds a few years back. Before I chose a new local(semi-local) bank, took a look at their financials. This one hired some VP who didn't know lending regulations from his ass, so stayed away.

NuttBoxer says

Local credit union where I live has been taken over. Was already under restrictions about how much debt they could have due to failed audit(?) or similar by Feds a few years back. Before I chose a new local(semi-local) bank, took a look at their financials. This one hired some VP who didn't know lending regulations from his ass, so stayed away.

What do.you mean by 'taken over'?

Did another credit union buy it?