Christopher Hooper

Investor. Auto Enthusiast. Dog Lover. Bay Area / NYC / Big Sky

[Marc Benioff @Benioff]

“San Francisco is once again experiencing a tech revival. Entrepreneurs and investors are flocking back to the city, which is undergoing a boom in artificial intelligence. Silicon Valley leaders are getting involved in local politics, flooding city ballot measures and campaigns with tech money to make the city safer for families and businesses. Investors are also pushing startups to return to the Bay Area and bring their employees back into the office.” ❤️🌉 https://t.co/Y8cdFm13lQ

[Christopher Hooper @cjhooper]

@LoganSargeant Get after it! This is your year

[Christopher Hooper @cjhooper]

@champwebdotnet Not weird. Look at his early F1 career with Renault. Guy crashes too much and can’t put together a consistent race weekend. Has great raw speed at times (like Laguna Seca a couple of years ago) but not consistent.

[Christopher Hooper @cjhooper]

Go gate! #colgate

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

The gov’t has about 48 hours to fix a-soon-to-be-irreversible mistake. By allowing @SVB_Financial to fail without protecting all depositors, the world has woken up to what an uninsured deposit is — an unsecured illiquid claim on a failed bank. Absent @jpmorgan @citi or @BankofAmerica acquiring SVB before the open on Monday, a prospect I believe to be unlikely, or the gov’t guaranteeing all of SVB’s deposits, the giant sucking sound you will hear will be the withdrawal of substantially all uninsured deposits from all but the ‘systemically important banks’ (SIBs). These funds will be transferred to the SIBs, US Treasury (UST) money market funds and short-term UST. There is already pressure to transfer cash to short-term UST and UST money market accounts due to the substantially higher yields available on risk-free UST vs. bank deposits. These withdrawals will drain liquidity from community, regional and other banks and begin the destruction of these important institutions. The increased demand for short-term UST will drive short rates lower complicating the @federalreserve’s efforts to raise rates to slow the economy. Already thousands of the fastest growing, most innovative venture-backed companies in the U.S. will begin to fail to make payroll next week. Had the gov’t stepped in on Friday to guarantee SVB’s deposits (in exchange for penny warrants which would have wiped out the substantial majority of its equity value) this could have been avoided and SVB’s 40-year franchise value could have been preserved and transferred to a new owner in exchange for an equity injection. We would have been open to participating. This approach would have minimized the risk of any gov’t losses, and created the potential for substantial profits from the rescue. Instead, I think it is now unlikely any buyer will emerge to acquire the failed bank. The gov’t’s approach has guaranteed that more risk will be concentrated in the SIBs at the expense of other banks, which itself creates more systemic risk. For those who make the case that depositors be damned as it would create moral hazard to save them, consider the feasibility of a world where each depositor must do their own credit assessment of the bank they choose to bank with. I am a pretty sophisticated financial analyst and I find most banks to be a black box despite the 1,000s of pages of @SECGov filings available on each bank. SVB’s senior management made a basic mistake. They invested short-term deposits in longer-term, fixed-rate assets. Thereafter short-term rates went up and a bank run ensued. Senior management screwed up and they should lose their jobs. The @FDICgov and OCC also screwed up. It is their job to monitor our banking system for risk and SVB should have been high on their watch list with more than $200B of assets and $170B of deposits from business borrowers in effectively the same industry. The FDIC’s and OCC’s failure to do their jobs should not be allowed to cause the destruction of 1,000s of our nation’s highest potential and highest growth businesses (and the resulting losses of 10s of 1,000s of jobs for some of our most talented younger generation) while also permanently impairing our community and regional banks’ access to low-cost deposits. This administration is particularly opposed to concentrations of power. Ironically, its approach to SVB’s failure guarantees duopolistic banking risk concentration in a handful of SIBs. My back-of-the envelope review of SVB’s balance sheet suggests that even in a liquidation, depositors should eventually get back about 98% of their deposits, but eventually is too long when you have payroll to meet next week. So even without assigning any franchise value to SVB, the cost of a gov’t guarantee of SVB deposits would be minimal. On the other hand, the unintended consequences of the gov’t’s failure to guarantee SVB deposits are vast and profound and need to be considered and addressed before Monday. Otherwise, watch out below.

[Charles Leclerc @Charles_Leclerc]

What a day. ❤️

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

The largest demonstration in the modern history of Estonia took place in support of Ukraine. I am grateful to the Estonian people and @AlarKaris for their solidarity in these difficult times. Mr. President, our vyshyvanka suits you.

[Christopher Hooper @cjhooper]

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose - Joe Biden 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Poppy Harlow @PoppyHarlow]

Love this. The President of @colgateuniv just spent 17 days quarantined in a **dorm** beside students to display universal sacrifice for the greater good. Good on you @PresidentCasey (glad you get to be reunited with your dog 🐕 now!!). Great booking @noraneus 👍

[Christopher Hooper @cjhooper]

1969 Ford Bronco https://t.co/JBskjPkDsP #bronco #fordbronco #69bronco

[Bubba Wallace @BubbaWallace]

To the next generation and little ones following my foot steps..

#LoveWins

[NASCAR @NASCAR]

The scene yesterday at @TalladegaSuperS, perfectly captured by @NASCARONFOX’s @mikejoy500.

[Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca]

https://t.co/IlRYdH6610

[Tom Cruise @TomCruise]

Maverick is back. #TopGun

[FORD v FERRARI @FordvFerrari]

Watch the new trailer for #FORDvFERRARI directed by James Mangold, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. In theaters November 15.

[Michael Shamburger @mshamburger1]

The crowd as Tiger was leaving! Crazy

[Levi Leipheimer @LeviLeipheimer]

I lost my house but not my home here in Sonoma County. We WILL make it through this. @ Sonoma… https://t.co/IkwVCJELmT

[Esther Mobley @Esther_mobley]

Chilling photo of @stagsleapwines captured by Peter Da Silva.

[San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle]

North Bay fires complete coverage: Information on how to stay safe; video from the scene; interactive maps; more >> https://t.co/yKJ583BQOa

[Jalopnik @Jalopnik]

This is your stunning 2016 Acura NSX mega photo gallery http://t.co/UaQpULlByo