Bill Pollak

President, @AccruentLLC (a Fortive business). Husband, Father, Skier, and Hiker. Tweets are my own.

[Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 @joncoopertweets]

I absolutely HATE that I find myself agreeing with Ann Coulter — even if just this once.

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

Maybe there was an improvement…last week. But today my flight from Porto (Portugal) to Newark was cancelled for alleged weather reasons (though Newark reports no problems).

[United Airlines @united]

There has been meaningful improvement across our operation after a challenging week that started with bad weather on the East Coast that caused a major ripple effect throughout our system. (1/5)

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

@united I can’t believe you are still canceling flights. June 26 Newark to Lisbon flights cancelled. Today my flight home from Porto to Denver via Newark was cancelled. Your app is useless for info and rebooking. #neverbookingunitedagain

[Jon Wu @jonwu_]

In 2017, I interviewed with Elizabeth Holmes to be Head of Finance at Theranos.

I'm convinced I learned more in those 45 minutes than I did in 10 years of school and work.

Today, she reports to federal prison to serve out an 11 year sentence for fraud.

Time for a story 🧵:

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

Whoa! Here it is. The moment in 2018 when Donald Trump removed the Dodd-Frank regulations that would have prevented the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Don’t let anyone forget this.

[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.

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

@NYTimesPR @richbarbieri Congrat Rich! Sounds like a great assignment for you.

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

@BrokerWx 65, but many for business where all I got to see were offices and conference rooms.

[Will Sommer @willsommer]

Christian nationalism is gaining more of a foothold as an openly embraced concept in the GOP. At a campaign rally tonight, Republican congressional hopeful Laura Loomer, who's Jewish, promised her audience that she "will fight for Christian nationalism." Grim stuff!

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

I find this story to be very disturbing.

[Jonathan Capehart @CapehartJ]

“My policy is not to conduct interviews with reporters who aren’t Christian or with outlets who aren’t Christian and Doug [Mastriano] has a very similar media strategy where he does not do interviews with these people." 👀https://t.co/Me3rEFFWMN

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

Thread…

[Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem]

On two occasions in the last four months, I have been interviewed by staff of the 1/6 Committee based on my academic and book work. I have no hot takes or breezy assessments before they even start. But I do have some thoughts, solely mine, based on those conversations. 1/

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

@COweatherman @JosephGruber @ProbablyOliver Makes sense. Thanks.

[Gordian @GordianCompany]

We are so thankful for Shelly and her passion for the environment that has aided many #highered institutions to succeed in their #sustainability efforts! Shelly Giannini is recognized as a Sustainability VIP in 2022 by @CBOMagazine.
https://t.co/W8ukWAP19o

[Jeremy Faust MD MS (ER physician) @jeremyfaust]

RT if you personally know someone with Covid right now.

[The Onion @TheOnion]

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens https://t.co/c1FEE0smko

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

For those of us who live here, it is moving to see the Boulder Star lit up on Flagstaff Mountain above the city. Usually only lit in the weeks around Xmas. A sign of community coming together after today’s tragedy.

[Higher Ed Facilities @HEFForum]

There is no going “back” to pre-pandemic times, @GordianCompany's Peter Zuraw says, “And we would assert that that's a good thing.” With all of the changes come great opportunities and #facilities leaders can, and should, be at the forefront. #HEFF

https://t.co/31NA3zBIKQ

[Bill Pollak @wpollak]

@SneakyBurrito @JasonKander @MyFitnessPal I’m at 2414 days...and have lost 35 pounds since I started. Keep at it.