Quote of the Day
The art of simplicity is
Rihanna, "SOS"
Quote of the Day
The art of simplicity is
Daniel Powter, "Bad Day"
Quote of the Day
All that is necessary for the triumph of evilI haven't seen a fresh \episode pop up in my feed through Tuesday morning. Spring break? Lots of vintage episodes I haven't embedded like this one. Tariffs were an issue, certainly for Lincoln in his inaugural address, but it was part of a bigger issue of regional political power.
Sean Paul, "Temperature"
Quote of the Day
Think as you like,
Ne-Yo, "So Sick"
Quote of the Day
Think as you like,
James Blunt. "You're Beautiful"
Cherokee Lizzie is now pointing at Fed chairman Powell for the SVB crisis. I do think she has a point in terms of the Fed's mandate following the 2008 economic crisis. And I think I read there were supervisory warnings about duration risk of SVC's MSE/Treasury holdings.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 20, 2023
Of all of Trump's bad decisions, the hush money scandal of Stormy Daniels has to be near the top. The dude reportedly bragged about adulterous affairs with wealthy married women in his infamous "The Art of the Deal". Maybe he thought having sex with a porn actress hurt his image.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 20, 2023
My latest essay reflects on the SVB failure.https://t.co/8CRU2i5TfN
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 20, 2023
No, Franklin Graham, "Corinthians 2" Donald Trump is no "victim". He is reaping the seeds that he has sown. A true Christian, unlike you, would call out this self-admitted adulterer of married wealthy women as did John the Baptist would. pic.twitter.com/bOAk8tkrXm
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
You didn't read the article I cited in HBR. HBR is well-known by us MBAs. But there are lots of articles not referencing your conspiracy. Stop quoting ESG scammers. https://t.co/toCnJdc7dd
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
I don't believe that woke investments perform well financially or even improve on compliance criteria. I think it's sad that Biden has wasted his first veto defending ESG scams in retirement plans. But note that workers like me will have better options. https://t.co/jHeI673QZl https://t.co/aHqymRKiRF
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Is it just me or does WWE performer Liv Morgan have a Trish Stratus-like giggle in her intro?
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Another complaint to @elonmusk : I've noticed that Twitter often seems to spin its wheels when my PC is on VPN.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
I mean, the dude owned a freaking beauty contest. I don't quite understand evangelical support for his candidacy, but they deeply disliked pro-abort Clinton.https://t.co/ICxL8QJynG
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
BidInflation has now resulted in a 50% price increase to NYC's iconic $1 slice of pizza. according to FNC.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Leftist memes are embarrassingly hypocritical. Take Gerry Studds, a gay Dem Massachusetts Congressman first elected in 1972. He had an affair with a 17-year-old male Congressional page his first year. (It was exposed a decade later.) He continually served until 1997. https://t.co/1o4Ifz23zl
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
It's interesting to see the leftist take on the SVB collapse. Usually, their pitch is the bankers gamble on risky loans at the expense of the government. Except in this case, SVB had to take losses selling US Treasuries, supposedly the gold star of safe investments.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
If anything, I would have liked to have earlier releases of the (initially experimental) vaccines, for those in high-risk groups. How many lives could have been saved? I know many younger people (e.g., school teachers) who got shots before many senior citizens.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Anti-vaxxer rubbish by scientific illiterates Maria Bartiromo and Rand Paul. The cold hard truth is the mRNA vaccines saved probably millions from serious hospitalization and/or death and allowed us to return to a more normal reality. We went from 0 to multiple vaccines in 9 mos. https://t.co/vcJnCby4nT
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
We, for example, think NATO is an anachronism. Trump by his "America First" motto seems to suggest the same, but it's more nuanced. He still wanted NATO but under his control and with member states picking up more of the costs. However, he wanted the biggest defense budget ever.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Trump offers little more than failed mercantilism. Big Government plays a corrupting influence on deciding winners and losers in the economy versus market competition. For example, Trump wanted to hit foreign steel, which made steel-based goods more expensive to consumers.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Wow. I love entrepreneurs who spend endless time and expense to bring goods & services for consumers. Here is a Maryland businessman who lost his restaurant during the pandemic. He won the lotto but wants to use the money to reopen his business. God blesshttps://t.co/zNPTxiruRp
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 21, 2023
Federal civil servants, like the recently retired Fauci, are NOT at will employees; they aren't appointed by, and serve, at the discretion of POTUS. They can be fired, only for due cause, by their supervisor.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
Trump TRIED to resurrect the spoils system.https://t.co/3s0Fnbc3Pb https://t.co/O6VHEvIzwg
I mean, Trump fired AG Sessions, who was Trump's breakthrough supporter in Congress and properly recused himself from Russiagate. He hired and fired Bolton, Mattis, and numerous others. You want him to pack the government with Trumpkins?
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
Can you imagine the incarnation of political corruption, Trump, trying to make everyone in the government his bitch, like when he fired Comey for not kissing his ring? Oh, he'll invent some pretext, like the "Deep State", to rationalize his power grab to gullible Trumpkins.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
Well, Biden may be "Born to Run", but Trump's been to "Candy's Room".
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
Bruce Springsteen https://t.co/eEHOAe7LyR
Trump is more educated than I thought: he used all the vowels in Ron "DeSanctimonious". (Never mind there's no C in DeSantis.) He got triple word score in Scrabble. But DeSantis trumped Trump in winning reelection in a landslide.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
Here's the recent reference to racoon dogs and/or other possible intermediary hosts for COVID-19 in Wuhan: "In some cases, the amount of animal genetic material was greater than the amount of human genetic material."https://t.co/5NGHMTBVUv
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
You can't make this crap up:https://t.co/qxZsdoDJOT
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 22, 2023
Yes, there are evil men everywhere, and the Church bureaucracy has notoriously mishandled bad apples.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
But did you know 86% of child abuse perpetrators are relatives, the overwhelming majority being parents?https://t.co/4lpyiTuIk1https://t.co/I0OiSrA7Lm
Well, not even Dolly Parton can compete against the Canadian transexual schoolteacher with prosthetic Z-cup breasts.https://t.co/vBq00CiTa5 https://t.co/FYky0AJQFM
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
Fauci lived a life in service of untold millions confronting horrific diseases. He became the scapegoat of the nation, not the jackass who didn't quarantine returning citizens from China, who didn't roll out testing as quickly as many countries, who argued against testing...
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
But let me be clear here; unlike almost every libertarian I know, I don't have Fauci Derangement Syndrome. And I don't do Politics of Envy. While I had at one point less than $100 as a doctoral student, my younger brother, a chemical engineer, had a house and vacationed.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
And to think--I once supported this guy (Sen. Paul) for POTUS.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
I'm somewhat surprised to hear some government scientists get some share of government patent royalties, but it's not a mandate to use a government patent.
Moderna https://t.co/JSdSp5SpKS https://t.co/eBIeIpiuKW
I'm a Vikings fan. Believe me, I know there are KC fans. (Super Bowl IV).
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
You have the usual leftist Sinema Derangement Syndrome and their morally corrupt Politics of Envy. Beyond the greed of Big Government statists, increasing the costs of investment has the economically perverse effect of discouraging investment & growth.https://t.co/yIEnpowhEN https://t.co/QVR9DGDGET
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
This is actually a very interesting thread because I think the FDA & CDC are still awaiting data on waning effects on bivalent booster protection. I and others are nearing the 6th month point we saw for getting a monovalent booster
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
"Scientific American"https://t.co/pCXG8zPVhi https://t.co/JD8I4LMXLI
I'm amused by this media and political obsession with TikTok. I seriously doubt the Chinese want to see my dance moves any more than American women.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
Right-wingers are hyping a dip in recent Biden approval polls. But he's above 43 in the RCP composite, maybe a point down. Not great, but he's still beating Trump by over a point.https://t.co/UQ3nG18Faa
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 23, 2023
Gonzaga's win over UCLA was one of the streakiest games I've ever seen. UCLA dominated the first half, went ice-cold in the second, only to make an unlikely comeback in the closing minutes, only for Gonzaga to regain the lead with an improbably long 3-pointer.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
I try to stay out of academia squabbles since my career ended in a 90's recession. But when Stanford Law School Dean of DEI Tirien Steinbach violated academic freedom by interrupting Fifth Circuit judge Stuart Kyle Duncan's address: Fire her!https://t.co/nHf3gjqWoM
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
I see the parliamentary vote bypass not as an anti-democratic move but as a gimmick to enable lawmakers cover from making a tough, unpopular vote. This way they have a facade of being against something unpopular but necessary. That's why Macron survived the no confidence vote.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
Apparently, French leftists learned some things from the "peaceful" post-Floyd protests.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
But not to fear; there is no Frenchman wearing horns in the Palais Bourbon. #sarcasm
This is Soft Rock America. Madonna, an aging pop star, finds that it's a drag growing old. Cue the Stones: https://t.co/FaL4QggWbS
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
You don't need to be Sec+ certified to understand the benefits of multi-factor authentication: it lessens the risk of others hacking into your Twitter account through predictable or cracked passwords.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
(I am, by the way.)
"Twitter Blue" https://t.co/ApRn3vAh8f
Just a reminder: whereas an Iranian drone killing or wounding Americans in Syria is tragic, we have no legitimate security interest in entangling ourselves in regional disputes of the Middle East/Gulf Region.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 24, 2023
The best American physicians haven't figured out how to turn off Biden's gaffe switch.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 25, 2023
"Canadian Parliament"
The Cougars outside shooting sucked in the second half, too many one-and-done trips on offense. And too many turnovers and unforced ones, period. Uncovered outside shots. They never really bounced back from a streak of 3-pointers.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 25, 2023
But give Miami's defense credit.
The Cougars outside shooting sucked in the second half, too many one-and-done trips on offense. And too many turnovers and unforced ones, period. Uncovered outside shots. They never really bounced back from a streak of 3-pointers.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 25, 2023
But give Miami's defense credit.
Well, at least one of my alma maters, UT, advanced to the Elite 8 in March Madness. Texas led Xavier from the start and never looked back. Both of my grad school alma maters games were on CBS tonight, a rare time I got to see either given my cable package all season.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 25, 2023
"[I]n the second half of 2022, 97.3% of people who died from Covid in this country were aged 50 and older."https://t.co/5hvDGE1oei
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 25, 2023
"Go Trump" to hell!
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 26, 2023
Hiring lawyers doesn't help the economy any more than broken windows.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 26, 2023
"Mike Lindell" https://t.co/3Dw1mgPLlQ
Courtesy of Bob Gorrell via TownhallBeyoncé, "Check on It" ft. Bun B, Slim Thug
The latest stats from WaPo:
We are now officially in spring although it hasn't warmed enough to turn my thermostat heat off or go outside without at least a sweater. This is the first winter I can remember without snow since 2000 (except for 2015-2016 when I was in South Carolina and Arizona). (As I've grown older, the fun of chipping the ice off my car windshield and clearing the snow, never mind driving in the stuff, has gone away.) But the basic question is, what happened to the widely predicted third consecutive winter COVID-19 surge?
Experts told ABC News that a combination of more immunity, better treatments, less severe infections and more people following mitigation measures likely played a role.I don't usually use this segment to debate the politics but I've had at least a couple of relatives email or repost more critical perspectives on COVID-19 or vaccine policy matters. Don't get me wrong; I was skeptical of the economic shutdowns, crackdowns against people not masking on public transit, etc.But I have zero tolerance for anti-vaxxet rubbish. An appeals court has denied Biden's vaccine mandate for federal employees.It's hard to see why federal employers don't have the authority to protect workplace safety. And Comrade Berrnie, "King of Free Stuff", is badgering Moderna for not commiyying strongly enough to lower COVID-19 vaccine prices as federal emergency funding tapers off. {Moderna has already announced a free vaccine shot policy for the uninsured after the federal funding expired and points out one loses economy of scale as the pandemic wanes and they produce single-dose vials, that projected prices are competitive with other vaccine costs]. And I want to note the better option is improved competition in the marketplace, and federal regulations, including vaccine approval, affect that. Finally, Biden has signed the bill to declassify COVID-19 origins data. (I don't think he had an alternative; the bill approval vote was basically veto-proof.) I don't object to improved transparency but don't expect any smoking guns because most federal agencies didn't express more than low confidence in favor of the lab leak hypothesis.
Some people have been getting off-label second bivalent booster prescriptions. The FDA has still not nade a decision, although the UK and perhaps Canada have extended it to the at-risk population, particularly the older population. In the US, the rate of bivalent booster seniors is half that of Britain's, even though just over 97% of US deaths are now from those 50+.
With the exception of Sunday (when I often publish arguably my most popular format post, my social media digest). readership has remained off the robust start of the month pace; we've already passed the 6-month low, but progressing last month's total (with 3 fewer days) is no longer inevitable. Twitter readership is somewhat lower but ok. Quite often the hot trends aren't interesting to me; I don't only tweet on hot trends, but it's a way of getting more exposure to other Twitter usera. It's not unusual for me to tweet a half dozen times a week or so on sports or wrestling, for instance.
The gold standard Office suite (spreadsheet, document, presentation, database) is Microsoft Office. There are free alternatives, of course, like Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice, not to mention Google's online apps. Microsoft is also marketing its 365 subscription model. I have no financial interest in Microsoft or its vendors, but for interested readers, there's currently an offer for a one-payment $40 license for Office 2021. I usually maintain a licensed copy on one of my PC's (including backup ones) for technical reasons (like work file compatibility and consistent presentation of functionality).
It's hard to tell whenever I'll face the next technical issue. For example, I maintain my iTunes library in a directory I backup to the cloud. (You can specify a non-default location in preferences.) I routinely check my cloud directory online. So, the canary in the coal mine was I deleted a podcast episode and it didn't appear in my cloud trash. Why? Long story short, the podcast episodes were now being downloaded to the default podcast location. It's not clear why it had reverted; the software looks at an itl file. The itl file in the cloud directory hadn't recently been updated there. I checked my preferences and saw it was in the install directory. No problem, right? I'll just change the directory back. And it seemed to process the update. I restarted iTunes--and it looked like nothing happened--back to the install directory. I googled the issue and noticed someone had questioned an Apple Support forum with essentially the same issue. No explanation how or why it happened but it seems if you hold the shift button while starting up iTunes, you'll get prompted for your itl file to use, and I set it to the last updated version in my local copy of the cloud drive. That seemed to resolve the issue.
Mail Store Home (my external disk email repository) had an unusual problem abending during the upgrade. I downloaded and installed the latest full version which resolved the issue.
Cables, cables, cables. I have older devices (like external drives, mice, keyboards, flash drives, and my older Amazon Fire tablet) that connect to a conventional (female) USB(-A) port to older laptops, desktops, and/or power banks/hubs/chargers. My Garmin devices need a male mini-B connector to (male) USB(-A) to transfer/charge from a PC or other power source interface. Newer PCs, Chromebooks and devices (like newer Amazon tablets) have USB type C (female) ports. [I'm simplifying nuances like USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 relevant to PC USB type A ports,.You can buy USB type C (male) to USB type A. There are adapters that will let you take a type A charge cable and convert it to a type C male. Part of the reason I've gone to this detail is I recently bought an SD/micro-SD to USB adapter but it has a type C connector which pretty much restricts its use for me to use with my Chromebook and Android phone. I've got SD slots/adapters I can use with my legacy notebook SD slots and there are some adapters you can buy with both Type A and Type C connectors.
I don't usually connect my Android to my PC that often. (For one thing, I can use my cloud storage account to migrate, say, some new mp3 files to my Android SD card.) I was puzzled why I wasn't seeing the device after USB cord connection but one of my cloud accounts popped up and wanted to know if I wanted to do file transfers. Some obsolete stuff on the web was irrelevant. Long story short: the way to access/mount the device is via ThisPC in File Explorer.
Then I had a problem with VLC playlist duplicates. I'll probably write this up in an upcoming SoftDoc post later. I basically discovered VLC on Android stores playlist data in a SQLite database. I learned SQL (a relational database query language) back in grad school and can do SQL in my sleep. (I've professionally managed relational databases for 30 years.) Anyway, I haven't done SQLite, but not a big problem. I figured how to dump the database, migrate to my PC (see prior paragraph), download SQLite tools to my PC, figured out the song duplicates, and then manually dedupped the playlist from 500+ songs to 188; I'm not sure how I entered so many duplicates. I'm annoyed with how they designed the database to allow duplicates, and it would have been a lot easier to dedup using SQL directly. I think there's a way to directly access the database but I think you have to root your phone, and I don't want to risk that at this point.
Quote of the Day
Nelly, "Grillz" ft. Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp
Quote of the Day
The grand essentials of happiness are:D4L, "Laffy Taffy"
Quote of the Day
The grand essentials of happiness are:Mariah Carey, "Don't Forget About Us". And that's a wrap on 2005.
Quote of the Day
I am only one;
Chris Brown, "Run It!" ft. Juelz Santana
Quote of the Day
Be honorable yourself
Kanye West, "Gold Digger" ft. Jamie Foxx
There are some Austrian School of Economics constructs that come to mind when I think of the current crisis, like cheap credit and malinvestment. There are some echos of this that bring to mind the prior S&L crisis or the 2008 economic tsunami, but a detailed comparison and contrast is beyond the scope of this post. I will simply refer the interested reader to the mises.org website and Youtube channel. I still have my academic orientation of thoroughly referencing a relevant post or article. I recently read an investment newsletter email which made similar, highly readable observations to mine (which probably is a common conclusion in the liberty movement), but I don't think or know he's made it available to the general public, and I haven't gotten permission to reprint it. I've written a number of related tweets over the last week or more.
I wouldn't say I have directly relatable experience, but I did have some experience working and living in Silicon Valley. In 1998 I worked as a senior principal consultant with Oracle, based in the Chicago area and working as a senior Apps DBA on projects all over the country, including a months-long project in Oakland. I was eventually replaced on the project when they found a more local consultant without my travel expenses. (I recall for a period of time they only let me fly home every other weekend). I earlier remembered Oracle had lost some money during the earlier Asian crisis, so my offer took a while coming through. Near rhe end of the year, Oracle laid me off. But at the time Silicon Valley was red hot, with Internet companies seemingly starting up overnight: the goal was gaining market share now, damn the cost, or lose it forever. What eventually resulted in my job offer by extortion was a white-hot hiring spree in Silicon Valley. I had specialized since late 1996 on ERPs like market leader SAP (the ERP system, not the company which worked on Oracle and other databases). I got some exposure with Oracle Apps, more recently known as EBS. So all these startups had their own ERP systems which drove demand for technical support specialists like myself.
My client/employer was not one of those companies, but one affected by the tight job market. It was a Japanese chip-testing machine manufacturer with clients like Intel, Micron and IBM. The subsidiary used to be centered in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, but relocated to Santa Clara in the late 90s to be near Intel and other Clients. They had hired a local Apps DBA but they were not paying competitively and he gave notice after 7 months. That's how I ended up on a 5-week temp gig. That eventually got extended to 3 months before the perm job extortion I've described in earlier posts. Vince's new job didn't work out; he actually wanted to be named the client's vacant IT supervisor job and didn't get it. He got himself hired back and wasn't happy the new IT manager had extended me a month. But the real story was he almost immediately gave notice. His earlier employer from a year back offered him stock options. (I've never gotten that. Oracle allowed employees to buy a limited number of shares at a discount on a periodic basis/)
But my 18 months stay in California also covered the beginning of the Nasdaq meltdown. After I left the chip-testing company, a computer consulting company in the San Jose suburbs hired me above my asking salary. But I noticed I wasn't getting placed into more typical weeks or months long. engagements. In one week, I worked at 4 different sites. One of the sites didn't even have a full-time DBA and would let requests build up over visits. I think the strategy was more of a loss leader concept like they hoped I would get their foot in the door if and when they wanted to staff a more lucrative Apps upgrade project. Here's the point: we were getting backed by venture capitalists. The last thing I remember was I heard the VC had axed the CEO. Uh-oh. They sent me for like a 2-day trip to east LA (unusual because they had a local office there). The Native American IT manager of the sugar production company loved me and extended the engagement. But I was in their first wave of layoffs, and I think the company went out of business within a year. Local gigs quickly dried up, I ended up returning to the northwestern suburbs of Chicago to work on a Wisconsin county ERP project, and my new apartment was less than a mile away from the old headquarters of my former chip testing employer.
Long story to point out how venture capitalists play a huge role in a crown jewel of our economy, high tech. But I remember one thing that bugged me several months back when one of my best Chicago area best friends from the mid-90s (he had accompanied me on a Brazilian client project) started engaging in day trading; I got a strong smell of late 90's speculation and gave a tepid response (I may have ticked him off because he hasn't reached out recently). A few enablers drove stocks to manic heights, including investment tax changes and low Fed rates. I remember kids dropping out of college for high-paying jobs. GDP growth was surpassing its long-term average. It wasn't hard to see in a world with limited labor and other resources, inflation seeping into the economy, and macroeconomic lags to the effects of national policy changes, the Fed finally started a series of interest rate changes by1999
While I would caution any simple correlation between Fed rate increases in 1999 and 2022 and harder times for venture capitalists, here's what we know: after an early 2020 pandemic-related correction and selloff, the Fed loosened monetary policy and the stock market recovered its losses from March 2020 by July. But higher performing tech stocks, spurred on by pandemic demand for technology solutions, failed to keep up with growth expectations as the economy transitioned back to normal operating conditions. Higher-earning/safer bonds and stocks became more attractive to investors, and the Fed began to hike interest rates,. But especially look at the falloff in the IPO market:
Insight/2022/07.2022/07.14.2022_US_IPOs_1H_2022/annual-us-ipo-activity.png?width=1805&name=annual-us-ipo-activity.png)
When the tech market is doing well, it's easier to raise related funds via, say, stock offerings, without drawing against funds on deposit. The problem is, as a just-married George Bailey explains in "It's a Wonderful Life" when S&L customers, in a panic after a town bank run, start their own rush to withdraw:
You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house...right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and a hundred others. Why, you're lending them the money to build, and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can.
The problem was that when their customers started to draw down on their deposit to meet expenses, SVB had to cash in assets, much of was in low-earning bonds and MBS like had been the case for years before the Fed started raising rates to levels we haven't seen since 2008. No problem if you wait until the end of the security and can recover the original investment. But as any Finance 101 student can explain, bond price varies inversely with interest rates, which means the price of the bond or security dropped to make the transaction equal to current rates. This means SVB was losing a lot of money meeting withdrawals--and more: this had to be reported.
Now this didn't mean a run, if we were talking deposits capped at the FDIC's limit of $250K per depositor. But many, if not most depositors were above that "SVB had almost 90% of its deposits uninsured by the FDIC.". And word spread at the speed of the Internet to larger depositors that SVB was eating its capital and needed to raise capital. Too little; too late.
How and why SVB didn't hedge its fixed-rate securities is impossible to explain: incompetence in risk assessment? It wasn't like it was lending out money on risky ventures. I read there had been concerns raised by regulators about duration risk of securities. Were they in a state of denial?
I rarely agree with Cherokee Lizzie, but the whole purpose of the Fed was to stabilize banking. You would have thought they would have thought about the spillover effects of multiple interest rate hikes and stress tested scenarios like SBC.
Quote of the Day
I like long walks, especially
Carrie Underwood, "Inside Your Heaven"
I'm sure, more than any other POTUS in my lifetime, Trump personifies the Ugly American. He insulted and dictated to allies, he initiated trade wars, he out-bombed Obama (but discontinued reporting of civilian casualties), he cut legal immigration, etc.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Trump refuses to reform senior entitlement programs that are running in the red on a pay-as-you-go basis, which means the government is eroding its reserves making up the difference. Longer lifetimes, a growing base of retirees & a lower labor force participation rate contribute.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
When I saw Lady Gaga trending, I was hoping she had brought back her meat dress.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
I have my own issues with fellow libertarian/conservative Massie. But this leftist is wrong in criticizing Massie on these issues. For example, lynching already violated federal laws, and Juneteenth wasn't the end of slavery; it was the 13th Amendment 6 months later. https://t.co/vKtI8ErGka
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Note the Trumpkin troll doesn't point out that jobs under Trump actually contracted but have grown under Biden. By my count, 15 banks failed under Trump, 3 under Biden. As for "open borders", Trump cut LEGAL immigration only.#BidenWorstPresidentEver https://t.co/i5yfropgEY
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Apparently, another square on progressive coverall bingo can be filled in: the first Asian actress Oscar.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
I have a dream that one day individual performance will be considered on merit and less on incidental characteristics like one's racial identity, beyond one's control.
It's all about spending, stupid. Hypocritical leftists weren't concerned over financial Armageddon when Barry Obama voted against lifting the debt limit.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Trump is like his own train wreck. All the rubberneckers are curious about wrecks. That doesn't imply they want to be in one.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Do not underestimate the stupidity of a Trumpkin.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
One dude actually wrote Trump has roughly 4 times the followers as Biden on Twitter and we're expected to believe he lost the election?
Trump was making news cycles with provocative tweets. Even Never Trumpers followed him.
Yes, Trump's tariffs hurt the economy, but Biden has largely left them in place. Obama and Biden had trillion-dollar deficits in recovering economies. Under none of these Presidents did we see for a yearly growth at or over the long-term growth trend. Their deficits affect growth
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
No, Trump was not responsible for COVID-19 deaths, but no doubt the failure to quarantine returning Americans from China, the failed government rollout of testing and Trump's hostility to testing exacerbated the issue. You have to credit Trump with expediting vaccine approval.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Wow. If you're a home plate baseball umpire, you need to have a thick skin. In this case the batter protested a called strike 2. A pissed-off ump calls him out on the next pitch, in a different zip code.https://t.co/NuTXwjOvWm
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
SVB lost money on liquidating older MBS to meet withdrawals (recall the price of bonds is inversely related to interest rates). Losses contracted bank equity. Advisers saw this as the canary in the coal mine and triggered a bank run among larger depositors beyond FDIC limits.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
So, Walgreen is abiding by pro-abort California's access to abortifacients. That's not enough for Newsom. He wants to end the state's business with Walgreen's unless they agree to do the same with other states with differing laws.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 13, 2023
Even the Biden Administration admits its loan cancellation bribe to young voters is going to cost a quarter trillion over the coming decade. Other estimates double that.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
Dodd N. Frankenstein has just been exposed by co-author Frank's presence on the failed Signature Bank's board.https://t.co/zlFjjuwJ1V
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
"Barney Frank"
This is beyond incompetent hopeful thinking. No, POTUS does not have authority to spend money on his own. Even Pelosi said that when she was Speaker. Biden is trying to stretch an exception for Gulf War veterans. This SCOTUS ruling will not even be close. https://t.co/MJ2mpT3Lly
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
Banking is the most heavily regulated industry. The problem here was the Fed, which was created to deal with bank panics, has been aggressively raising rates. Because of economic conditions, SVB customers had to draw down on deposits. SVB had to sell MBS at losses for currency.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
Today we are celebrating the anniversary of Karl Marx's death.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
I was a freshman high school geek whose curly hair was unruly in hot south Texas weather. My world history teacher nicknamed me "Einstein", it quickly caught on and lasted through graduation.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
"Albert Einstein"
Pope Francis seemed to open the door to the idea of making the vow of celibacy voluntary for priest candidates. (The Church has struggled to attract enough men to staff parishes.) I know it was a factor in my decision not to pursue the vocation.https://t.co/uClhhf84TP
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
Neither the Dems nor the GOP have abstained from foreign interventions. If you want a party which in principle stands against foreign intervention and for free trade, the Libertarian Party is your best option next year.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
"World War III"
There is a reason why DeSantis got a record reelection vote against former GOP Governor Crist. Trump, on the other hand, didn't reach 47% in either of his election bids.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
The Willow project approval is a rare moment of economic sanity from the Biden Administration, which in concept contributes to energy security underlying our economy. Leftist trolls, like the OP, are hypocrites on nuclear power and have unrealistic expectations on transition. https://t.co/4KM6pRossD
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
It's true that we are all mortal and will die one day. But Old Man Trump is closer to the average man's lifespan. If Trump gets reelected, things will be better for Trumpkins in the afterlife because hell will have frozen over. https://t.co/L4dGUqgJ4i
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
Megalomaniacal Biden bureaucrats are targeting water usage in washers. Could showers and toilets be next?
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
This is beyond disingenuous partisan rubbish. House was controlled by Dems through 1994, 2007-2010, 2018-2021. The House GOP had the only 4 balanced budgets. Only the Dems passed growth crippling tax and regulation hikes. Among Dems, only Obama had up to 6 months of recession. https://t.co/h5neyXhRPu
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 14, 2023
Carter asked Biden to give his eulogy. You know what that means: Carter knows Biden will plagiarize from the world's greatest eulogies.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
"President Carter"
Lots of people find it hard to live from paycheck to paycheck under BidInflation. I'm sure they would like other people to pay their other own personal bills--high credit card bills, utilities, mortgages, etc.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
Point of fact: Congress did not pass college loan cancellation. https://t.co/rhGyFk2ZXM
Biden's futile attempt to unilaterally expand regulatory authority will be canceled by SCOTUS, just like in the case of his predecessor, Obama.https://t.co/tmzVAOM9Im
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
"Executive Order"
A loser dude in Singapore is suing a woman for ruining his reputation by refusing to date him. We are all wondering the same thing: was Trump in Asia?
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
I remember one presumptuous woman who made it known she would never date me. I wasn't attracted to her and never considered it.
Fox & Friends is heavily rotating the story of a downed US drone by Russian jets over Interational waters of the Black Sea and treated it like an unprovoked military attack. They also mocked a restrained response from the Biden Administration. Be clear: no war with Russia.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
Central government has intrinsic hubris and incompetence in regulation, which Hayek explained in "The Fatal Conceit". It's like seizing a balloon on one side. One would think the Fed would be aware of its rate hikes on low-earning bonds sold early to finance withdrawals.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
\Be clear: Obama didn't do a damn thing to earn the Nobel Prize. He was simply anyone other than George W. Bush. He subsequently went on to launch drone attacks in undeclared wars, meddle disastrously in the Middle East (e.g., Libya), and upsized hostilities in Afghanistan. https://t.co/anUsBqyv4o
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
A lot of college loan deadbeats on Twitter shamelessly demanding a bailout at the expense of taxpayers. The rest of us have to pay our own bills.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
The problem is Biden doesn't hold the power of the purse and Congress never authorized the spending. SCOTUS will cancel Biden's order
One of the tough things in being a libertarian is when one's politics affect family members. My late dad and a niece have worked for USPS, and I favor privatization. I have at least 1 other niece who is still paying off her college loans and would benefit from loan cancellation.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
The SVB board was dominated by non-banking wealthy Dem donors. The problem SVB faced is something every finance 101 student knows: the price of bonds varies inversely with interest rates. SVB had to cash in low-interest bonds at huge losses to finance withdrawals.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
This is Soft Rock America. I see Aubry is trending; I don't know her, but David Gates does: https://t.co/I23hKRP2QF
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
My latest post is on Kaepernick who recently threw his white adoptive parents under the bus.https://t.co/QWYjLLyhqz
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
The dude can do a lot of damage with a pen and a phone. https://t.co/VClN6lBpAn
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 15, 2023
Between leftists and Trumpkins, Twitter is a wasteland.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
Biden was NOT involved in the Nord Stream explosions.
Messy withdraws are not impeachable crimes.
Immigration law enables refugee entry & "open borders" are constitutional.
Strategic reserves are not in Constitution https://t.co/BOMyij9PUy
Dems are clueless in their obsession to get Trump indicted. If you want him out of next year's election, don't make him a martyr. Remember, indictment doesn't mean conviction and Trump will promote any "exoneration".
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
We libertarians have issues with the government loan monopoly in principle; it should be privatized. There is no Constitutional enumerated banking or education power. A cancellation policy creates moral hazard, creates a bad precedent. Students need to be held responsible.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
The leftist troll doesn't understand the concept of negative income tax. Suppose the exemption amount is $50K, the subsidy rate is 50%, and you make $40K. This means the government would pay you .5*(50k-40k)=5K. https://t.co/wP0aBUMk6n
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
A variation of the idea of the negative income tax emerged from the Nixon presidency, i.e., the earned income tax credit. Hazlitt criticized the concept below:https://t.co/wbjt8oJ4Qh
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
It's not just you. Note you can block the obnoxious ones.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
I made all payments on my $1600 college loan, including all the interest cost payments. I think you are leaving out salient information, like maybe you didn't make interest-related payments. If you made all scheduled payments, it may be a processing error.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
I was a double-major in math & philosophy with a perfect 4.0 in tough majors. I was advised not to get a PhD in my first love, philosophy, because the only jobs available were if a professor died or retired.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 16, 2023
Trump is that kid you remember who flips the gameboard over when he loses so nobody else can win.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 17, 2023
"TRUMP WON AND YOU KNOW IT"
Wow. My UH Cougars, a #1 seed in its region for March Madness, finally pulled a double-digit win, but the score was tighter most of the game. Not in my cable package so I had to track the score on CBS' Tennessee game.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 17, 2023
Life expectancy in France is about 79 for men, 85 for women. France is facing huge deficits if it maintains the status quo of eligibility for 62, and Macron has used a French Constitutional bypass vs. a tough vote on deferring retirement to 64. France is having a meltdown.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 17, 2023
There is little doubt that Bush and Obama's interventionist policies resulted in collateral damage.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 17, 2023
But Putin has been deliberately targeting non-military targets in a wave of state-sanctioned terrorism. Not a valid comparison.https://t.co/zwgCEht4tF
"Bush and Obama"
"While the latest genetic evidence found animal and viral genes in the same location, it still does not point to an infected animal—or an animal’s genetic sequence that shows evidence of infection with the virus."
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 18, 2023
Trump is still trying to manipulate people into a state or panic. He's whining about the "stolen" election, falsely accusing Mexico of dumping violent or mentally ill people. He's added inflation to his bitching, but does he blame the vast pandemic spending he signed into law?
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 18, 2023
Jones was able to appeal the case based on new evidence. That's where Jones settled the case for the alleged "hush money", which largely went to legal fees. Clinton was a public sector executive for his misconduct. Trump's misconduct was while in the private sector.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 19, 2023
I don't know how people come up with these comparisons. I think Trumpkins are desperately trying to compare Trump's misconduct. Jones filed her suit in 1994. The alleged incident occurred in 1991 while Clinton was governor. Clinton's affair with Ms. Flowers was a subject in 1992
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 19, 2023
My UH Cougars beat Auburn to make the sweet 16. I have to admit I was worried at the half. Once again, my cable package sucked. I was tracking it over the UT game on CBS. Now I have 2 alma mater teams in the sweet 16.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 19, 2023
Donald Trump is no martyr. He's a self-serving manipulative ink stain in American history. Corrupt plutocrats like Trump should be held responsible for their misconduct.
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 19, 2023
"Dan Bongino"
Strange; now he's copying Kaepernick. https://t.co/Z7X6b7C3GH
— raguillemette (@raguillemette) March 19, 2023