9 min readWhat Led to The Bank’s Eventual Closure and What Lessons Cash Investors Can Learn From This to Minimize Portfolio Risk On March 8th, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) announced a significant balance sheet restructuring and an associated $2.25 billion capital raise to shore up the bank’s financial position after rising rates and significant deposit outflows severely…
6 min readIn a speech given in April 2022, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu recalled the ‘chaos’ driven by a series of bank failures during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) . This resulted in a flurry of acquisitions and unorderly liquidations thrown together to prevent further disruption to the financial system. This experience eventually led…
4 min readHow auto manufacturers are developing strategies for improved ESG ratings Over the past several years, auto manufacturers have been increasingly focused on reducing carbon emissions via improving vehicle fuel efficiency and transitioning their product lines to fully electric vehicles. This increasing focus isn’t unfounded: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the transportation sector accounted…
6 min readMarket participants seeking guidance on what sustainability means for their business and how to implement something more than a working definition have led financial regulators and standard setters to start crafting sustainable reporting frameworks. While still in their infancy, they mark a significant step towards effectively integrating sustainability concerns into financial markets. Broadly speaking, these…
6 min readIn the past twelve months, inflation has slowly become one of the greatest issues challenging the global economy. As the Fed has responded with the most aggressive interest rate increases in decades, treasury professionals have an opportunity for higher return potential on their cash investments. However, they need to be aware of the impact inflation…
6 min readIt’s no secret that tech giants enjoy healthy profits, but less well known is just how much cash these cash cows have. At the end of 2021, Big Tech (Apple, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta) held a combined $476.7 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. To put that into perspective, this is…
6 min readCo-authored by: Alexander Goldman In June of 2019 the House Committee on the Judiciary launched an investigation into whether Silicon Valley had fallen under the grip of a few large gatekeepers that have come to control key areas of e-commerce. A sixteen-month examination of key players’ market dominance, primarily focusing on Apple’s, Google’s, Amazon’s, and…
6 min readWhile most major integrated oil and gas companies have expressed alignment with the Paris Agreement, efforts made by U.S. players to address climate change with a transition to more renewable energy sources have fallen short in comparison to their European counterparts. As some drag their feet on sustainability efforts, governments, world organizations and financial institutions…
5 min readThe COVID-19 pandemic produced the first major test for the U.S. banking system since the 2008 global financial crisis. At the start of the pandemic, questions were posed about how bank balance sheets would hold up amidst a period of social isolation, lockdowns, elevated job losses and a severe contraction in output. Would the banks’…
5 min readWhile most major integrated oil and gas companies have expressed alignment with the Paris Agreement, efforts made by U.S. players have fallen short in comparison to their European counterparts. Despite some players still dragging their feet in their sustainability efforts, governments, world organizations and financial institutions continue to pressure companies to align with climate-focused goals….