Category: Laptops

Hi there! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC, and these stories of wild sex accidents from an ER doctor who treated them will wake you up if you haven’t had your coffee yet. 

We’re still looking for nominations for our 2023 rising stars of equity research. As a reminder, these are US-based equity research analysts who are 35 and under. Click here to learn more and to nominate someone. And check out last year’s list here.

Today, we’ve got stories on what to expect in the Federal Reserve’s meeting today on interest rates, what you need to know about Google’s answer to ChatGPT, and perhaps the most comprehensive ranking of Taco Bell menu items in the history of the internet.

But first, there’s a new sheriff in town.

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Samantha Lee/Business Insider

1. Changing of the guard.

There’s an old saying on Wall Street: You can only leave Goldman Sachs once. 

The bank holds a level of prestige across the Street that trickles down to its employees. Having Goldman on your résumé, especially a senior designation like MD or partner, is arguably the biggest stamp of approval you can get in finance.

Insider’s Alex Morrell has a fascinating look at how Goldman Sachs’ top executives have headed to some of the top hedge funds in the world in recent years. The story has plenty of data on the trend, including charts mapping out top Goldman execs who have made the jump to Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel.

Poaching talent is a longstanding tradition on Wall Street, and the path from the investment banks to the buy side is a well worn-one.

But Alex’s story is more than just confirmation that these trends are alive and well. It’s an indication of the shifting tides on Wall Street between the firms that traditionally held all the power (big banks) and the ones usurping them (multi-strat hedge funds). 

A big reason for this so-called changing of the guard is the regulations put in place following the 2008 financial crisis. Those rules limited the risks banks could take, thus lowering the potential comp bankers could earn.

And now, off the back of yet another banking crisis, it seems hedge funds are again positioned to be the beneficiaries. The downfall of Silicon Valley Bank will likely lead to more banking regulations, further limiting the earning potential of future bankers.  

That’s bound to push even more people toward hedge funds, which keep growing bigger ever year, yet don’t have the same regulatory oversight as their peers. 

This too, I am sure, will end well. 

Click here to read more about how Goldman Sachs alumni are getting poached by the world’s biggest hedge funds.

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In other news:

Marielle Descalsota/Insider

2. So about that interest rate hike… The Federal Reserve is set to announce what it plans to do with interest rates today. The announcement, which is always closely watched, is getting extra attention in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the decision and where the Fed might end up landing.

3. Credit Suisse bankers: “Get us outta here!” UBS’ rescue takeover of Credit Suisse has been a boon to business for one industry: recruiters. Headhunters have been fielding calls nonstop from Credit Suisse bankers heading for the exits. More here.

4. Inside the whacky world of commodities trading. JPMorgan discovered that the $1.3 million worth of nickel in its warehouse was actually just bags of stones. It’s just the latest mix-up in the world of physical commodities trading, which has been known to have these types of “mix-ups.” From spray-painted rocks cosplaying as copper to forged documents, more on the the uniqueness that is commodities.

5. How things went so wrong for Vice. The media company went from a $5.7 billion valuation in 2017 to now scrambling to try and find a buyer. Here’s the inside story of how things fell apart over the past six years.

6. Two Hollywood titans just raised $15 million for their startup trying to be the LinkedIn for Hollywood. The Oscar-winning pair of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer launched their startup, Impact, with a goal of helping producers hire behind-the-scenes crew members. More on how the startup wants to upend Hollywood. And check out our library of all the pitch decks that helped media and tech startups focused on the entertainment industry raise millions.

7. Buy now, pay later for businesses. Oslo-based startup Two wants to help ease payments between businesses by offering a buy now, pay later service. Here’s the deck the Sequoia-backed startup used to pitch its vision when it was raising $19.3 million in fresh funds.

8. Google’s answer to ChatGPT has arrived. Bard is the tech giant’s AI chatbot. Here’s everything you need to know about the new chatbot.

9. If you want to work at Deloitte, read this. David Rizzo, the head of talent at Deloitte US, shares some advice with us for future applicants. These are the top three things he looks for in a candidate.

10. Every item on the Taco Bell menu rated from worst to best. It’s not an easy job, but someone has to do it. We ranked everything on T-Bell’s menu, from the Beefy five-layer burrito to the famous crunchwrap supreme. Here’s how all 54 items stacked up.

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Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Nathan Rennolds (tweet @ncrennolds) in London. 

 

• Credit Suisse staff have swamped recruiters across the globe amid the UBS deal, per Bloomberg.
• It said one recruiting firm had 30 calls on Monday, while another spoke to 20 bankers since last week.
• One recruiter told Insider they hadn’t seen such an influx of enquiries since the financial crisis.

Credit Suisse employees have inundated recruiters across the world with calls to find a new job as UBS struck a $3.25 billion deal to buy the bank over the weekend.

Bloomberg reported the news on Monday, citing people in the recruitment industry who were familiar with the matter and requested to remain anonymous. They told Bloomberg anxious employees have contacted recruiters in London, New York, and Singapore over recent days.

The day after Credit Suisse and UBS announced the acquisition deal, a recruiting firm in Singapore received around 30 inquiries from mostly Credit Suisse private bankers, the people told Bloomberg. The bankers were asking whether there were any vacant jobs on the market, the people added.

Since last week — when Credit Suisse’s share price dropped sharply — a Hong Kong-based recruiting company has spoken to more than 20 senior investment bankers at Credit Suisse, the people told Bloomberg.

Bharisha Mirpuri, senior client solutions manager at Randstad Hong Kong Recruitment Agency, told Insider she predicted there to be some turmoil in the Asian job market, but nothing significant.

It was a similar scenario in Europe. One industry headhunter based in the UK told Insider that the amount of job inquiries from Credit Suisse staff has stepped up for around a month.

“The speed at which I am receiving CVs and enquiries for roles is just remarkable,” they told Insider. “The last time this happened in my career was during the financial crisis.”

A headhunter based in London told Bloomberg that Credit Suisse staff flooded him with calls over the weekend. He added that the majority of the employees came from the bank’s equity division where there is overlap with UBS’s business, per the report.

Another firm which handles recruiting for managing directors told Bloomberg it has received calls about jobs, especially in the wealth division, since late Friday.

It comes as Credit Suisse workers told Insider they were bracing themselves for job cuts amid the acquisition, which UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher called “an emergency rescue.” One associate said some employees had been instructed to start looking for a new job.

A spokesperson at Credit Suisse told Bloomberg the firm was encouraging employees to “continue to the best of their abilities against a difficult backdrop.” They added that Credit Suisse will “do everything we can to ensure an orderly transition and to serve our clients as best as possible.”

Credit Suisse declined to comment when contacted by Insider, while UBS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Welcome back! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC, and I feel like my entire life has been a lie after learning the truth about “sizzling” fajitas at restaurants.

Today, we’ve got stories on a fintech that’s set up shop in the south of France, the potential downfall of a small, Christian college with Wall Street ties you’ve probably never heard of, and why you’re doing intermittent fasting all wrong. 

But first, now what?

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Tyler Le, Rebecca Zisser/Insider

1. Picking up the pieces from SVB.

Where do we go from here?

It’s just over a week from Federal regulators announcing they would be bailing out depositors of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Now, the FDIC said Sunday that New York Community Bancorp’s Flagstar Bank will take on nearly all of Signature Bridge Bank’s deposits.

The initial bail out was meant to stop panic among the general public and limit contagion.

About that…

The past week has not been kind to the banking industry. SVB Financial, the parent company, has filed for bankruptcy as it still awaits a potential buyer. Meanwhile, the biggest US banks stepped in to deposit $30 billion into First Republic.

Still, that might still not be enough to save the beleaguered bank. It’s gotten so bad that famed investor and noted Midwesterner Warren Buffett is talking to the Biden administration about how to save regional banks. 

The bad banking vibes have even spread across the pond. Credit Suisse, whose problems long preceded SVB’s downfall, to be fair, is getting acquired by Swiss rival UBS. The deal is worth $2 billion, a considerable amount less than what the bank’s market cap was on Friday. Here’s a statement from the Swiss National Bank on the news.

In an hour-long call held late on Sunday evening, top UBS executives defended their decision — and analysts began breaking down what comes next.

But, as we look at what the future holds for the world of finance, it’s worth remembering how we got here. Insider has you covered with three features looking at the play-by-play perspective on how SVB fell apart, why big banks came out on top, and how the knock-on effects will be felt for years to come across industries.

Panic and recrimination: Inside Silicon Valley’s first real financial crisis.

Wall Street keeps winning even in a banking crisis.

Silicon Valley Bank was the bank for tech. Its collapse is everyone’s problem.

Top UBS executives defend their “emergency rescue” of Credit Suisse. Here’s what comes next.

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In other news:

Armando Oliveira/Getty Images

2. Fintech in the south of France. Messaging and workflow startup Symphony opened an engineering hub just outside Nice where employees can split their time between the Alps and the French Riviera. (Must be Nice!) Check out photos from an office location we are all jealous of.

3. VC’s LPs weigh in. The people backing venture capitalists, known as limited partners, share their thoughts on how VCs handled the crisis at Silicon Valley Bank. Read more here.

4. My college might soon no longer exist. Insider’s Paige Hagy has a fascinating first-person look at her experience attending The King’s College. The small, Christian school in New York City’s financial district is on the brink of going under. You’re gonna want to read this one.

5. Invest in single-family rentals, they said. It’ll be easy, they said. From iguanas squatting in the attic to dozens of snakes living in the walls, Wall Street is getting a crash course on being a landlord at scale. More wild examples of the challenges of property management. 

6. PE and porn. The parent company of Pornhub (a website I am sure none of you are familiar with) was acquired by a new private-equity firm named, wait for it, Ethical Capital, The Financial Times reports. More on the deal here. 

7. Forget Deadheads and Parrotheads, the Swifties are on tour. Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” kicked off this weekend in Arizona. We broke down what goes into preparing a city for the arrival of the superstar’s rabid fans. From new bars to thousands of cookies, here’s how to build out “Swift City.”

8. So you want to get into the fast-food business? Fast food could mean fast money, but it won’t necessarily come cheap. We’ve got the rundown on how much it costs to open 12 of the biggest fast-food chains in the US.

9. How to ride the rails in style. Insider’s Joey Hadden has ridden nearly 1,000 miles across multiple countries on business-class trains. Here’s where she ranks them all. 

10. If you’re trying intermittent fasting, don’t do this. It’s a popular diet, but you need to do it right! These are five common mistakes to avoid, according to a researcher. 

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Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London. 

 

• A coalition of more than 100 mid-sized banks is calling for deposits to be insured for two years.
• The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America asked regulators to extend protection, Bloomberg reported.
• It said action was needed to “restore confidence among depositors before another bank fails.” 

Federal regulators have been urged to protect all deposits for the next two years to prevent a wider run on banks following recent collapses, Bloomberg reported. 

The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America, which represents more than 100 lenders, called on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to put backstops in place and broaden its protection for smaller banks. 

“It is imperative we restore confidence among depositors before another bank fails, avoiding panic and a further crisis,” the MBCA wrote in a letter to regulators, per Bloomberg. 

The group said the FDIC should extend its cover to “reduce chances of more bank failures,” according to the outlet, which obtained a copy of the letter that was also sent to the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve.

Only the first $250,000 in accounts are protected by the FDIC under existing rules.

The MBCA said the increased protection would stop the “exodus” of deposits from smaller banks and help “stabilize” the financial sector. 

If the FDIC did extend its insurance to all deposits for two years, banks could pay for it themselves by expanding the deposit-insurance risk assessment on lenders that chose to opt in, the MBCA suggested. 

The coalition also said that confidence has “eroded” in smaller banks and that more cash could be taken out of regional lenders if more banks failed, per the report.

Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed this month following a run by depositors, while First Republic Bank was bolstered by deposits to the tune of $30 billion from a number of bigger lenders. 

After taking control of SVB, regulators said they would “fully protect” all of its deposits in the bank.

The FDIC, OCC, Treasury and Federal Reserve all declined to comment to Bloomberg. 

• New research has found that working from home has created a boom in weekday golfing.
• While remote workers are hitting the green on weekday afternoons, productivity isn’t dropping.
• That’s good news for leisure businesses and shows remote work has changed people’s work structures.

“Don’t people have jobs? Why is it so busy out today?” one TikToker lip-syncs in a video while holding an iced coffee. The caption that reads, “Me, a 9-5 corporate working woman, at Sephora at 2:24 PM on a Thursday.” 

That TikToker is not alone, as anyone who’s had a friend or loved one working remotely can attest to. When work can be contained to a pocket-sized phone or a few jiggles of a mouse to prove you’re active, it can theoretically be done anywhere.

It’s turned the many American workers who are still in remote or hybrid roles into the professional version of college students: The days and afternoons are fair game for leisure or errands (or naps), and work can be done, much like a library all-nighter, during off-hours.

“The simple story is on work-from-home days, it’s a great opportunity to do things like go to the dentist, play golf, go shopping when it’s quiet,” Nick Bloom, a Stanford University economist whose research on remote work spans nearly 20 years, told Insider.

New research from Bloom and his colleague Alex Finan found that working from home created what they called “a huge boom in golfing.” Using car GPS data from Inrix and a map of 3,400 golf courses across the US, they were able to track when and how many people visited the greens from April 2019 to November 2022.

The results: More people were golfing overall, and the number of them doing it on weekday afternoons increased by 83% from August 2019 to August 2022. Wednesdays at 4 p.m. — right when workers are finally facing the back end of the workweek — was the peak time for weekday golfing. While the study focused solely on golf, the researchers said they believed people were likely using that time for other “leisure activities,” like going to the gym, playing sports, or shopping. 

While some companies have called employees back to the office, Bloom doesn’t think remote work is going anywhere. The share of work being conducted from home has fallen from its peak of roughly 60% in 2020 to roughly 27% today, Bloom’s research found. He said he expected it to stabilize around 25%.

All those remote workers hitting the green doesn’t necessarily mean people are working less. The “adult-student” economy could be a boon for services spending and for productivity.

“If employees remain productive, this indeed could be good,” Bloom and Finan wrote. “Golf courses are getting higher usage by spreading playing across the day and week, avoiding weekend and pre-, post-work peak loading. This will raise ‘Golf productivity’ — the number of golf courses played (and revenue raised) per course.”

Workers aren’t less productive than they were before the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ indicator. While labor productivity cooled off a bit in the first quarter of 2022 as the economy settled into its pandemic recovery, it grew in the last two quarters of 2022. Workers are working — just maybe not regular 9-to-5 hours.

Afternoons of leisure could end up being good for companies and a double-edged sword for workers

While not every afternoon golfer or shopper is working extra hours later to make up for it, Bloom’s research suggests many people are doing just that.

“We see work-from-home employees shift hours away from the working day when they work from home and into evenings and weekends,” he said, adding: “Much like students choose to spread work out — rather than just work 9 to 5 on Monday to Friday — employees are also choosing to spread work out.” 

Microsoft’s researchers dubbed it the “triple-peak day” after spotting an uptick in Microsoft Teams chats between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. when the pandemic began. That’s in addition to the two traditional “productivity peaks” — before and after lunchtime.

This blurring of one’s work and personal lives might not leave all workers better off, though. Some have had a difficult time establishing work-life boundaries and are working more than they did when they were in an office. Of course, some workers have never had the luxury of working from home or are increasingly getting called back, meaning that they won’t get to experience weekday leisure.

US remote workers saved an average of 55 minutes by avoiding their daily commutes, a research paper Bloom coauthored found, but put some of this time saving toward work.

So that time on the golf course could be a double-edged sword, as any college student who’s partied on a weeknight can confirm: That hole in one might mean another hour working late.

“I think my colleague was taking his Zoom call from the golf course,” a tech executive in Palo Alto, California, told the researchers. “He was on mute and video off, but once when he was talking, I heard somebody talking about the fairway and strokes.”

Have you golfed, shopped, or done another leisure activity during work? We want to hear from you. Reach these reporters at jkaplan@insider.com and jzinkula@insider.com.

• Bill Ackman is sounding the alarm on Wall Street’s $30 billion show of faith in First Republic.
• The billionaire investor fears the move has put other banks at risk and could endanger the economy.
• Here’s why he’s worried and wants a temporary blanket guarantee on bank deposits.

Bill Ackman has warned that Wall Street’s rescue of First Republic threatens other banks, the financial system, and the US economy. Here’s a closer look at why he’s worried, and what he wants.

What’s going on?

JPMorgan, Bank of America, and nine other banks said on Thursday that they would make uninsured deposits totaling $30 billion in First Republic Bank (FRB) for at least 120 days.

Ackman cautioned that if FRB suffers a tidal wave of withdrawals and defaults on its debts, the Wall Street banks would be exposed and suffer losses as well.

The billionaire investor and Pershing Square chief argued the big banks’ show of faith hasn’t addressed the root problem — a lack of trust in the banking system.

Simply put, banks make money by taking their customers’ deposits and using them in two ways. They can lend the money out and collecting interest on the loans, or invest it in relatively safe assets such as US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities.

As a result, they don’t keep the cash on hand — which makes it tricky if they have to satisfy a sudden surge of withdrawals.

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last week because its money was tied up in long-dated bonds that had slumped in value due to rising interest rates, and a large number of its customers tried to pull out their money at the same time. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of ailing SVB on Friday. Under a systemic risk exception, it agreed to insure deposits at both that lender and another, Signature Bank, on Sunday.

What could happen next?

FRB stock has tanked 70% since last Wednesday, as investors fear it could collapse as well. The San Francisco-based lender’s customer base has a similar profile and concentration to SVB’s, a high percentage of uninsured deposits, and substantial unrealized losses on its bond portfolio.

The bank has tried to assuage fears by securing access to $70 billion of liquidity from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan, and agreeing to receive another $30 billion in deposits from its peers.

However, S&P Global and Fitch have both cut the lender’s credit rating to junk status, citing the risk of a wave of withdrawals.

Ackman described the Wall Street rescue as a “fictional vote of confidence,” and investors seem to agree as FRB shares were trading lower in premarket trading on Friday. He praised FRB as a healthy, well-run lender that shouldn’t be blamed for its current challenges.

“It is caught up in a bank run due to no fault of its own,” he said. “It does not deserve to fail.”

Ackman’s fear appears to be that bank runs will take down one lender after another, threatening the stability of the entire US banking system.

That could discourage banks from lending money, causing a credit crunch that could hurt consumers and businesses and hammer the entire economy.

“I am simply extremely concerned about financial contagion risk spiraling out of control and causing severe economic damage and hardship,” Ackman said.

“We need to stop this now,” he continued. “Tick-tock.”

“Three dominoes have fallen and another is on its way,” Ackman said in an earlier tweet, referring to Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate. “Time is running short before the fire becomes a conflagration.”

What does Ackman want?

Ackman is urgently calling for a temporary, systemwide guarantee on all US deposits, as he believes that would shore up faith in lenders and discourage bank runs.

His longer-term solution is to raise the cap on deposit insurance from its current level of $250,000, and charge higher fees to less creditworthy banks to encourage them to act responsibly.

• A Meta worker found out she lost her “dream job” in an email sent at 5:55 a.m.
• Jenny Saxton said in a LinkedIn post Wednesday that she hasn’t “fully processed” the news yet.
• The recruiter said it was a “tough morning” and she’d been experiencing a “wave of emotions”. 

A Meta worker discovered she was laid off in an email sent at 5:55 a.m. and said she hadn’t “fully processed” that she lost her “dream job” hours later.

Jenny Saxton revealed in a LinkedIn post that she’d lost her job in the second mass layoffs at Meta this week. 

Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that another 10,000 staff were being laid off in a second wave of job cuts after 11,000 were axed in November. 

“At 5:55AM, I got the email that I was impacted by the next round of #meta#layoffs #opentowork it’s 9:00AM and I still don’t know if I have fully processed what happened,” Saxton wrote.

 

She was a senior technical recruiter, according to her LinkedIn profile, and joined in August 2021. Saxton said it’d been a “tough morning” and she was experiencing a “wave of emotions.” 

“Meta was my dream company and dream job. I was recently promoted in July and I couldn’t have been happier. I was working on great projects, so this is hitting me hard. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this,” she added.

The latest round of layoffs comes after Zuckerberg said Meta was embarking on a “year of efficiency,” closing about 5,000 roles and reducing the pace of hiring.

He also said the company would be restructured and “lower priority projects” scrapped. Zuckerberg mentioned its metaverse project only twice in the post, but referenced AI four times and said it’s now Meta’s “single largest investment”.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

Are you a Meta employee who’s lost their job in the latest layoffs? Contact Jyoti Mann at jmann@insider.com or by direct message on Twitter for Signal contact details

• Credit Suisse shares fell 21% Wednesday after its Saudi backers ruled out more investment.
• The embattled Swiss bank revealed ‘material weaknesses’ in its reporting on Tuesday.
• Shares in the pan-European Stoxx 600 index also tumbled in Europe, leading to trading halts.

Credit Suisse shares tumbled more than 20% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after its biggest backer ruled out investing any more into the troubled Swiss bank. 

“The answer is absolutely not, for many reasons outside the simplest reason, which is regulatory and statutory,” Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said in a Bloomberg interview, responding to whether the Gulf lender would dole out more money. 

Shares in Credit Suisse slid 21.91% to $1.96 in pre-market trading in US-listed shares. Meanwhile, in Zurich, it’s stock fell 19% to $1.79, marking a new record low on Switzerland’s stock exchange. The bank’s stock is down about 24% since the start of the year.

The Saudi lender became the largest shareholder in Credit Suisse after it replaced Harris Associates earlier in March. But acquiring any additional stake in the company is not an option for them, Al Khudairy said. 

“If we go above 10%, all new rules kick in whether it be by our regulator or the Swiss regulator or the European regulator,” he said. “We’re not inclined to get into a new regulatory regime. I can cite five or six other reasons, but one reason is there is a glass ceiling and we’re not going to entertain going beyond it.”

On the news, shares in the pan-European Stoxx 600 index also tumbled in Europe, leading to trading halts, according to CNBC. 

• Citadel boss Ken Griffin has said US capitalism is “breaking down before our eyes.” 
• “It would have been a great lesson in moral hazard” if US regulators didn’t bail SVB clients out, according to him. 
• “There’s been a loss of financial discipline with the government bailing out depositors in full,” he said. 

Citadel boss Ken Griffin said America’s capitalist economy is “breaking down before our eyes,” citing the government move to bail out depositors who lost money in Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. 

“The US is supposed to be a capitalist economy, and that’s breaking down before our eyes,” he told the Financial Times on Monday. “There’s been a loss of financial discipline with the government bailing out depositors in full.” 

Griffin, who leads Miami-based hedge fund Citadel and capital-markets company Citadel Securities, said US regulators shouldn’t have stepped in to rescue all depositors at SVB and Signature Bank — even those with uninsured deposits — from financial losses. 

“It would have been a great lesson in moral hazard” if regulators didn’t decide to relieve the banks’ clients, according to him. “Losses to depositors would have been immaterial, and it would have driven home the point that risk management is essential,” he said. 

He thinks that bailing out depositors of these banks sets the wrong precedent, and the move was unwarranted in the current circumstances given the US economy was strong enough to withstand any fallout.

“We’re at full employment, credit losses have been minimal, and bank balance sheets are at their strongest ever. We can address the issue of moral hazard from a position of strength,” said Griffin, whose flagship company posted a record $16 billion in profits last year, marking the best year for any hedge fund in history. 

Griffin’s also criticized regulators for overlooking red flags along the way. “The regulator was the definition of being asleep at the wheel,” he said.

His comments echo a string of remarks from high-profile names on Wall Street who disagree with the government’s rescue plan. “All deposits guaranteed? Big mistake. Fed and Treasury policy moving to backstop risk,” billionaire ‘bond king’ Bill Gross said on Twitter. 

But others, like billionaire investor Bill Ackman, maintain that SVB wasn’t a bailout because regulators are only protecting depositors, not the management or shareholders of these banks. 

Phew. Hey there. Senior reporter Phil Rosen here. Before we jump into the newsletter, the Silicon Valley Bank saga is continuing to unfold, so let’s quickly break down the latest.

The big story this morning: HSBC has bought the UK arm of collapsed SVB in a last-minute deal for 1 British pound, or $1.21. The UK government and the Bank of England facilitated the private sale, British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter: “Deposits will be protected, with no taxpayer support”.

Also, if you haven’t heard, Signature Bank yesterday became the third bank to fail in the past week, after Silvergate shut down its bank voluntarily.

The Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC made a joint statement Sunday evening, effectively saying that all depositors for SVB and Signature Bank would be made whole, and that a new facility, the Bank Term Funding Program, would be created to provide liquidity for firms under stress. 

“No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer,” policymakers added.

Meanwhile, as the two banks fell under regulatory control, First Republic issued a message to clients aimed at calming nerves, saying it still had strong liquidity. 

In any case, some folks on Wall Street have been telling me that we can chalk up much of the turmoil to our departure from the easy-money era. 

More than a decade of near-zero interest rates allowed companies to borrow money freely, and as far as repercussions go, what we’ve seen so far could mark only the tip of the iceberg.

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AP Images

1. The fall of SVB and Signature bank means the Fed’s aggressive interest-rate hiking regime has now taken sizable casualties. 

The tumult is a byproduct of the central bank’s 1,700% increase in rates that took place in less than a year, and it could mean more once-stable institutions could be turned inside out in the coming months. 

“When you raise interest rates quickly, after 15 years of overstimulating the economy with near-zero rates, to not imagine that there’s not leverage in every pocket of society that will be stressed is a naive imagining,” Lundy Wright of Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisors told me. 

This new rate cycle delivers a “perfect storm,” according to Deutsche Bank analysts, who told clients last week that SVB epitomizes all the risks worth fretting over in the shifting policy era.

In a Sunday note to clients, Goldman Sachs’ research team pulled back their Fed policy forecast in response to this weekend’s bank failures. 

“In light of recent stress in the banking system,” the analysts wrote, “we no longer expect the FOMC to deliver a rate hike at its March 22 meeting with considerable uncertainty about the path beyond March.”

In any case, the risk of contagion may not be all that high, as my colleague Matthew Fox writes, given that banks have become extremely well-capitalized since the Great Financial Crisis. 

And according to Tut Fuller, chief executive and founder of Capra Bank, if policymakers stick to their word and protect depositors like they said they would, people will have their faith restored. 

“I’m hopeful that the government’s approach of stepping in and protecting depositors, but not bailing out failed executives and boards of directors, actually builds confidence,” Fuller told me close to midnight last night. “We need to protect the consumers and businesses who thought their money was safe and hold poor leadership accountable.”

Here’s Deutsche Bank again: 

“What do you get when you see one of the biggest hiking cycles on record, alongside one of the most inverted yield curves in history, at the same time as seeing one of the biggest tech bubbles bursting in history, coupled with runaway growth in private markets?”

The answer looks something like what transpired this weekend. 

What’s been the most surprising thing to you about the collapse of two banks in three days? Tweet me (@philrosenn) or email me (prosen@insider.com) to let me know. 

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In other news:

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2. Stocks on Wall Street battle for direction as SVB’s failure ignites fears for banks. Shares in First Republic Bank fell as much as 60% premarket after the US lender tapped the backstop for a $70 billion to shore up liquidity. Here are the latest market moves. 

3. Earnings on deck: Carlsberg, Getty Images Holdings, and more, all reporting. 

4. Morgan Stanley recommended this batch of stocks to profit on an investing strategy that produces positive returns 100% of the time. Here’s the approach the strategists laid out — including the 19 names they like now.

5. A $15 billion venture capital firm had warned its startups of Silicon Valley Bank’s red flags months ago. Greenoaks Capital Partners told clients in an email back in November that SVB, as well as other firms, could see problems in a high-interest-rate environment, Bloomberg reported. Those clients pulled over $1 billion in funds out of the bank ahead of the turmoil. 

6. Investing veteran Jeremy Grantham said the stock market bubble is still deflating. The market won’t bottom until 2024, and investors shouldn’t be fooled by any rallies that materialize, the GMO co-founder said. He blasted the Fed’s monetary policy as a 36-year-long “horror show.”

7. The bank crisis will force the Fed to slash rates by 100 basis points to prevent contagion. That’s according to market guru Larry McDonald. He said it was the Fed that effectively caused the dramatic bank run last week.

8. This real estate investor owns over 1,250 units. He was able to retire at age 36 through leveraging the cash flow from his properties. Here are the five pillars that he says drive wealth — and how investors can combine them to compound their income and reach financial freedom.

9. An investing expert who says “cash is king” doesn’t think it’s time to get into the stock market right now. Lauren Simmons recommends instead putting your money into Treasuries, CDs, and high-yield savings accounts because that’s how you can be best prepared to jump on new opportunities after a recession.

Markets Insider

10. Bitcoin and other risk-assets stumbled amid bank fears. The crypto industry is navigating fresh pain as Silvergate prepares to wind down and other financial firms face snags. Bitcoin dropped below $20,000 last week, but is now back above $22,000. Here’s what caused Friday’s drop. 

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Curated by Phil Rosen in New York. Feedback or tips? Tweet @philrosenn or email prosen@insider.com.

Edited by Max Adams (@maxradams) in New York and Hallam Bullock (@hallam_bullock) in London.