Podcasts about bank america

Investment banker and author Chris Whalen, chairman of Whalen Global Advisors, who is also the author of The Institutional Risk Analyst, returns to The Julia La Roche Show to discuss the big picture of the economy and markets. He highlights the dichotomy between the consumer side, which is doing relatively well, and the commercial side, which is suffering due to low interest rates and illiquidity. Whalen predicts that interest rates will rise, leading to a preference for income-focused investments and a shift away from speculative pricing.  He also emphasizes the need for reimagining and redeveloping cities to address the challenges in the commercial real estate sector. Overall, Whalen believes that the economy is producing nominal growth but that people are struggling due to rising costs. Links: Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/rcwhalen Website: https://www.rcwhalen.com/ The Institutional Risk Analyst: https://www.theinstitutionalriskanalyst.com/ The Death of Leverage; What's the WAC of Bank America? https://www.theinstitutionalriskanalyst.com/post/the-death-of-leverage-what-s-the-wac-of-bank-america Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and welcome Chris Whalen  0:55 Macro view, we're in a weird dichotomy   2:55 Higher interest rates  4:03 Rate outlook  7:13 5 handle on 10-year treasury  10:18 The death of leverage  12:00 Confidence  16:43 Silent crisis in commercial real estate  20:25 A qualitative recession  25:15 Election year  27:23 Higher rates and impact on investor behavior  32:30 Goodbye 

It often seems that the only constant is change, as Treasurers grapple with geopolitical risk, rate volatility, inflation, supply chain, disruption, and ever-evolving technology. PwC's Didier Vandenhaute and Koen De Smet talk with Bank America's Peter Ziegenfuss about the key themes arising from their latest Global Treasury Survey, and the priorities for CFOs and Treasurers in 2024. They dive into how cash & liquidity management, working capital optimization, bank rationalization, and intelligent automation are front of mind for Treasurers and the office of the CFO.  Host Peter Ziegenfuss, Global Head of Bid Management, Bank of America   Co-hosts Didier Vadenhaute, leader of the Global PwC Banking and Cash Management Network Koen De Smet, Director of treasury technology at PwC   MAP 6412070 / 8-20-25  

Torsten Slok, Apollo Global Management Chief Economist, says the Fed's easing of financial conditions could pose risks to the US economy. Cameron Dawson, NewEdge Wealth Chief Investment Officer, suggests that a potential repricing of rates would be a pain trade. Dan Ives, Wedbush Sr. Equity Research Analyst, says Apple's growth potential makes the stock a 'golden buying opportunity.' Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets Large Cap Bank Analyst, advises incorporating bank stocks into investor portfolios and believes we'll see further consolidation in the industry. Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, discusses the latest in the Middle East after a senior Hamas official was killed in Beirut. Get the Bloomberg Surveillance newsletter, delivered every weekday. Sign up now: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/surveillance  Full Transcript: This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. Right now, our conversation of the day. Synthesizing all this together. Torson Stock is chief economist at Apollo Global Management. Torson I'm going to pull in here a whole bunch of threads. The Bloomberg Financial Conditions Index is showing massive accommodation, and yet I look at the old liboard, the news, Sofa, sofr and I'm seeing huge restriction within the short term paper market tensions on Wall Street and the ill liquidity on Wall Street. How urgent is it for the FED to make some direction on a March cut or dare I even say a January first cut? Well, it has a number of different dimensions. First, there is a dimension on the real economy. It's clear that the FED pivot has eased financial conditions dramatically, and this begins to run the risk that we might see a repeat of what happened at the citycon Valley Bank. Remember Chris Waller just said a few weeks ago the easing of financial conditions in Q two that boost the GDP growth to five percent in Q three. Could we see the same now where the easing of financial conditions after the fat pivot might actually be boosting the housing market, the label market, services inflation, goods inflation. We are not out of the woods when it comes to battling inflation. So on the real economy, absolutely, the easing of financial conditions is very supportive. There are some issues when it comes to the plumbing when the tightness as you're highlighting in very short term markets, and the FED for sure has to play this difficult talk of wall between do we want to ease financial condition on the rial side or how much can we ease financial conditions in the very front end of the curve. But this is the challenge for the FED. At the moment that you're highlighting, Torsten, you didn't listen. They didn't respond to the idea of financial conditions. They didn't seem to think it mattered at all at the last press conference. Why should it matter now? I mean we're going to actually hear them come back and say, actually, just kidding about that financial conditions question. Well, they were debating in October and September, well maybe financial conditions have done a lot of the work for us, and now they're saying, well, maybe financial conditions it doesn't really matter because it can fluctuate so much. So I still think that it's a little bit inconsistent what they're saying when that data dependency, it only talks about the real data, whereas the financial conditions impulse. If you take the easy and financial conditions that we've had since the fit pivot and stuff it into furpose the fed's model of the US economy, you will get a boom of up to one and a half percent growth over the next slevel quarters in GDP. It's going to be very supportive as a tailwind to the economic outlook. Although we did have Ganadi on earlier of TD securities, and he said even with this idea that inflation could remain stickier, that we could get this ongoing growth, the FED could still cut rates and still be restrictive. Given the positive real rate. Do you ascribe to that kind of thing or do you think that just means many fewer rate cuts going forward for the Fed. I think that's absolutely right that we have. Of course, for the better part of the last year, we have talked about higher for longer. Now the conversation is more restrictive for longer, because they can still be restrictive if inflation is coming down, because real interest rates is what matters. So if real interest rates are still positive as inflation comes down, the fact and according you also gradually begin to lower rates. But note also that if you look at the outlook for sofa futures, as also Tom was mentioning, you still have that the bottom will still be around three and a half four percent. So one very important conclusion for as an allocation is that we are not going back to zero. We have still higher for longer, in the sense that the level of interest rates, the level of the free rate on page one in your finance textbook, will be significantly higher for the next several years than where it was from the period from twosand and eight to twenty twenty two. Let's try and get to the half of what we're discussing. Care the interest rates sensitivity of the US economy exactly. And now what we've seen over the last two years is rates go up aggressively and not slow down the economy. And what you're suggesting is that as rates start to come in and financial conditions ease, that the economy picks up again. Can you help explain that to people why higher rates haven't slowed the economy down but easy find financial conditions will boost it. Ye. But what's very important in that debate, and that's also taking place on Twitter and X of course here at the moment, is that my lift very critically sophisticate. Important to remember that that is significantly a function of whether you talk about the interest rate sensitive components of GDP or the non interest rate sensitive components of GDP. If you split GDP into the cyclical components and the non signal components, the main component that is sensitive to interest rates is housing. And housing did respond dramatically to higher rates. So this whole idea that the economy didn't respond to higher rates, that's just completely wrong. Of course, the economy responded to rates. It was the interest rate sensitive parts that responded to rates going up. Housing started slowing down. But the non interest rate sensitive components, in this case travel, restaurants, hotels. After COVID had such a long tailwind that that more than dominate the slow down in the housing market. So splitting that debate away from the academic textbook, which we all love, is so important because it becomes so critical to think about did the parts of the economy that are sensitive to interest rates did they actually respond? And absolutely, in particular housing Kapix also of COMMERCIALI state things that are sensus of two interest rates they did absolutely respond to when interest rates window. This is a fantastic explanation. So let's build on it. Let's project this out. What are the forecasts now for you for GDP in the next couple of quarters. We heard from the likes of Max Kanner of HSBC who said, the biggest risk right now is that we have to reprice rates again higher because exactly of what you're talking about, what are you looking for in the data? Well, if I type ECFCG on my Bloomberg screen, I will see that over the next six months we are very close to zero, zero point four and zero point five on GDP for Q one and Q two. So the consensus answer to your question is GP growth is continuously slowing as a result of the fat's campaign of hiking rates. The new risk that has emerged is that because of the fit pivot, that means that the interest rates sensitive components that we're dragging down GDP for the better part of last year, they might now begin to rebound. Housing most importantly, case SHILLA is now up five percent. Case SHILLA is a very important leading indicator for the OEI, meaning the shelter components of the CPI, and shelter makes up forty percent of the index, So that means that if something that makes up forty percent of the index is about to rebound, we could come back to that discussion about maybe the rates markets we'll have to reprise to higher for long gun and more restrictive for longer. I just looked at the two year inflation adjusted yield. I haven't looked at it since time began Nixon was president, and I can use the word never over twenty years, the integran, or the duration of a high two year real rate, we've never seen. We had a spike in eight with a great financial crisis, but these sustained high two year real yields are absolutely unprecedented for global Wall Street. How unstable are we right now? I would say, at least from a fet perspective. If you just take the economic textbook out and think about what matters, it is absolutely as you're highlighting real rates, So real rates being at these levels would tell you that we're still in very restrictive territory. So the challenge here for the FIT is that they still want to have the soft landing, and we all want to have the soft landing. That will be the best outcome, of course, from so many dimensions. But what is beginning to matter is that they have now sucked so much liquidity out. We've gotten to a point where we are beginning to see some strains in the plumbing that you're highlighting. And that's why real rates it has a very significant different impact on the long end and what it means for the real economy relative to what high real rates means for the front end and what it means for financial markets as host. And this has been an absolute Cameron Dawson joins US now chief investment Officer at New Edge Wealth Camic and morning and happy New year, Good morning, Happy nowear are you sitting on the fence because I'm written this first line in your work. It says we could have a scenario where both bulls and hairs are right this year, which one is it? Well, I think that we have to be nimble because I believe that there is going to be a scenario where you could very easily see people get drawn even further into this market. We think positioning is overweight, but not quite as is extreme as it was in times like twenty twenty one or twenty eighteen. So you could see some pain get pulled in. But the other reality is that you could see a rationalization of the fact that sentiment is very extended and that valuations are extended. So it's how you react to market rallies or market corrections, I think is how you will win. In twenty twenty four we mentioned that HSBC. So let's talk about the work coming from Max Kentna this morning. Here's this line, biggest risk another repricing and rights. Do you agree with that one hundred percent? That's the pain trade. The pain trade is that everybody thinks that inflation is fully vanquished and then gets surprised if things like oil prices move higher. Wages end up being stickier than expected rates move higher, and then all of those stocks that rerated in the last two months up thirty forty percent because now they're not worried about their balance sheets anymore. Balance sheet risk becomes an issue again, and you get a reversion of a lot of the names that were lower quality that happened to lead at the end of last year. The modeled out earnings are nine percent ten percent. Dare I say double digit eleven percent earnings growth for this year? Is that in the price now or is that going to develop out in the first half of next year. It is in the price now, and I think that we always have to think about the path of twenty four will be pricing in what actually happens in twenty twenty five. So if a recession looks more likely in twenty twenty five, that's when you'll start to see those earning estements get cut into the out years. The thing that's the biggest challenge for us for earning estments in twenty four is the expectation that top line growth will re accelerate in a year where nominal growth because of inflation is expected to decelerate. Can you see that happen at the same time where we get less inflation, less pricing power, and yet we get a big acceleration in top So away for the romance of Apple and Microsoft. If you look at Staples and discretionary and all, you've got to model out there, what you go back from a six percent wonderment of growth back to four percent revenue growth? Yeah, very likely. And there are idiots and pockets where you're going to see improvement. You know, healthcare had its earnings down almost twenty percent last year, that will flip positive this year just because of easy comps. So that's where we're trying to look outside of just the macro drivers, Staples being a great example of one that can't get away from this inflationary dynamic, and look instead to the more idiotsyncratic opportunities our banks to douse syncratic opportunities. And I ask with JP Morgan at new record high, Yeah, I mean you've seen such a huge rerating. Of course, there's pockets of banks where there is still inexpensive areas. You know, banks do have the tailwind of a less inverted curve, hopefully a reopening of capital markets. But then we have to consider things like BTFP, does it get re extended Basil three in game, all of these things that could be big drivers of bank earnings or at least appetite for bank risk as we go through twenty twenty four. It sounds like you're not buying the rotation story. I am buying the rotation story. Yeah. I think that we have to have an open mind that even great companies with great balance sheets, with monopolies could still underperform simply because positioning is so crowded and because valuations are so elevated. That's the smartest insight I've heard in the last forty eight hours. Are we going to have rotation or not? That's a really, really undersaid cool question. I think that that was really some of the anks behind the sell off that we've seen that was living, that was really led by big tech. We were talking about this yesterday with Apple, and I guess that you know, how much does that have legs versus what we saw last year, which was a headfake and everyone came in saying, all right, this is the year to sell tech, and by the end of the year of them was saying in Nvidia Magnificent seven, it's going to change the world. Kumba Yah it's going to save the United States, I mean, et cetera, et cetera. And what a different setup because at the very end of twenty twenty two you had record outflows from tech ETFs. You look at the course of twenty twenty three, you had forty billion dollars of inflows into technology compared to twenty billion dollars of outflows out of things like energy and financials and healthcare. So really this could just be about positioning and pain trades and the fact that you already re rated tech because now it's already just one turn away from its twenty twenty one peak valuation, so you're hitting a ceiling. Let's put a couple of stories together. You said, maybe the biggest paying trait the risk here is high, right, so reprice give rights again at Lisa brought up banks. How woud the banks respond to that given what we saw last year? Yeah, I mean it would raise balance sheet risk again. It probably puts into sharp focus again issues with commercial real estate because we've all kind of breathed this collective sigh of relief that higher for longer is dead if it's not dead, and the path of the cost of capital instead of the last forty years of being down is actually marching slightly higher and in a choppy path. Could mean that we have to reprice some of the risk in some of these balance sheets. Is it just JP Morgan then everyone else? When we talk about the banks, is that what we're talking about? JP Morgan then everybody else? We actually just are looking very deeply at some of the regional banks. Some of the regional banks are underpriced. We think if we look at the balance sheets, they're not as extended as or as issued as some parts of regional banks that some don't have as much commercial real estate exposure, have great presence in their local areas, so they're trading at very discounted valuations. If we're going down in value, that's one of the areas we're actually looking. Yeah, it's somebody at you know, the last five six, seven days at JP Morgan's capturing one out of five profit dollars in American banking. If that isn't the third or fourth or fifth national bank of the United States, I don't know what is. There is nothing else. It's JP Morgan versus everyone else. That's been a story the last year. I'll refer to our guests done this. But yeah, I mean they're capturing some twenty percent of profits according to the source. I'm sorry you don't have a source in front of me to side. I think it's it's the it's the Bramow newsletter. You know that newsletters. It's a muster r. It's a muster reader. Camic. Thank you got to leave this. It's going to catch up. It's going to say a happy new Year, Cameron Dawson, the new h wel let's get right to it. This is so important right now. Dan Ives joins us. He is a bull on any number of technology companies. We wait for him to come out on controlled data here and with a birecommendation at some point. That's a little bit of history there. Dan Ives with webbush Dan, what's a channel check? What exactly is a channel check? I just I just don't see it. Yeah, and look for us in terms of our easier supply gene checks, really trying to focus on what demand looks like in terms of the suppliers for iPhones. There have been no cuts from an iPhone perspective as of data, and I think that's that's bullets and ultimately that shows demand through howadays season has actually been on part, actually better than expected. And to me, that's what I focus on rather than the haters continue, Okay, but data tell Okay, you've been gracious about this, and they've been gracious about your twenty twenty three ganormous success. But when you do a channel check, are you counting iPhones? Are you over in China guessing the manufacturing line? Are you in the store on Madison Avenue looking at how many people from Lisa's family are buy an Apple loot? What's a channel check? Yeah? All above time. I mean, we feel we're in Apple stores around the country, around the world. We're also talking to suppliers basically trying to triangulate to what we think units is going to look like for the quarter and for the year. And that's how we've done it from the beginning, I mean, over the last decades so. And it's one of you're always gonna have different opinions. You just talk about the Barclays downgrade. We continue to stick with our checks. That that has navigated us, you know, a lot more right than wrong. I think when you look at I from fifty, it's easy to take shots, you know, relative to maybe some of the fears out there, especially fire and a crowd theater first day at the trading you know a year I it's a groundhog day. You know, we saw it last year as well. It's underestimated. Two hundred and fifty million. Is the install based upgrade cycle that's due in that window has an upgrade in four years, Dan, let's get into it. You mentioned Barkleys, Tom mentioned it too. I mentioned this, so let's get to that line. The continued period of weak results coupled with multiple expansion not sustainable in that it is a statement of fact, and then there's an opinion of the end. The statement of fact is iPhone cuts. They haven't been great for the last twelve months. That's the fact. Yet it's been coupled with multiple expansion, also a fact. The opinion piece is they're saying it's not sustainable. Are you suggesting that it is? Yeah, So what I'm suggesting is that the next three to four quarters you're going to have iPhone growth. You have growth coming out in China despite the fears and abs are the bare noise, and I think the most important thing is services, and I think services is going to be teenager type of growth. That's key to the multiples Manson story. And then we go into later this year, there's gonna be more monization from an AI as we talked about. That's gonna be the next layer. I think it all results and this is gonna be viewed as more of a golden buying opportunity rather than the start to hit the elevator exit. How much Dan, is your bullish call predicated on this idea of rate cuts, the idea of rates coming down as much as people think, yeah, look, that's probably five ten percent from multiple perspective. I mean, as we saw twenty two to the disaster twenty three in terms of now popcorn movement, in terms of FED gonna cut in twenty four. Look, it speaks to our overall bull tech thesis, right that the soft landing Killsberry do a boys soft landing. You're starting to see now more and more focus on tech. I do think now. You know, as Pharaoh's talked about multiple expansion twenty three, I think the numbers show it in twenty four. That's the difference. Twenty four is where the numbers come through, and tech twenty three was more than multiple expansion. Well, you mentioned China and how China demand is going to pick back up, But I wonder if it's going to be for iPhones. And I know we've been talking about this for a long time, but yesterday this caught my attention. The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla in terms of deliveries for the first time. You're seeing that really start to be a main theme. People said that that was never going to happen. People say that it's never going to happen, that Chinese consumers are going to throw out their iPhones. What makes you so confident that we're not going to see the same thing happen in the iPhone cycle that we're seeing right now in the electric vehicle one? Yeah, great question. And look, when you focus on Tesla, I mean that's essentially two horse race between TESTSA and BID. Tests actually beat numbers and China was strong for them. But I think it does speak to look domestically BID they're beast. I mean, they've done a phenomenal job, but Tessa is always going to be aware there in China. When you look at what's happening within the China market from an idphone perspective, it speaks to just a massive and all bays that they built in China. You have one hundred million iPhones in China right now, window of an upgrade opportunity, and the irony is despite geopolitical the last eighteen months, Apples gained three inch books of market share because the average high end, as in middle income Chinese consumer, they want an iPhone despite government basically trying to push WAWE. And I'm so pleased to Lisa brought up the EV comparison because I think that industry right now has the potential to be the industry story of twenty twenty four and beyond byd beyond Tesla. How much of a reality check are we getting for the industry for the likes of GM and Ford, I think a big reality shacka. That's why you've seen Farley. I think Mary they pull back, you know, in terms of a bit from the EV strategy in Detroit. And the problem here is do consumers want EV or they just want to tessel And I think that that's really the issue that's really starting to play out. And at this point, Tesla's doubling down on evs, but no doubt there's been I think much more moderate demand that we're seeing across the board, and you know, I think as that puts out, you're going to see others peel back while others go more aggressively, like the likes of the Tesla. I wonder what you think the endgame actually is. If you speak to the leadership at GM of thought, they've been generous with that time we've had this conversation with them. They talk about a change in execution, maybe not a change in strategy. Would you expect to see a change in strategy this year and what would that look like? I think slight changing strategy where maybe they pull back on some of their long term numbers in terms of EV when they expect to go fully EV you know, as a two thousand and thirty four thirty five. Look, the UAW also put their back against the wall. It's a different cost structure and they're trying right now to it's a tight balancing act that they're trying to get to in Detroit. And I think also it's tough going up against the likes of Tesla and some of these other evs. That's been a big part of the problem that they're focused on, especially now with the UAW. Increase in the cost structure, well said Dan. Going to hear from your happy new year, Sir Dan is Wetbush. Jere Cassidy, Large Camp Bank analyst that RBC Capital markets rights in this. After a tumultuous twenty twenty three, we believe the banks are our positioned for investors to warn outsize returns in twenty twenty four and investors should overweight the sector in their portfolios. Jer Cassidy, I'm pleased to say join us. Now let's go straight to it. Number one question. This is a question for me, and I know it's a question for Lisa. Is this off the back of high yields or lower yields? I would say John that we're expecting that the yields gravitate lower, especially at the front end of the curve when you take a look at what the Fed has done. If we truly are at the terminal rate for FED funds in the past four tightening cycles when they started to cut rates, it's always been a catalyst for bank stocks. And think what we're expecting as the market is that at some point in twenty four the Fed could cut your term interest rates. Is this for bank stops or is this for JP Morgan at least a very good question, because JP Morgan has been the risk off trade and it's been spectacular, as you guys mentioned, record highs. And so if we're going into a risk on environment, which I believe we are, if the FED is finished tightening, then actually JP Morgan is probably going to be a source of funds for many investors. It is a stock that is owned everywhere. It's been a great stock, but risk on may be the better way to go with a Bank America or City Group or others like that a source of funds. I love that it's a euphemism for it gets sold, so that you could raise money to buy something you think is going to return more the fact that you think it's going to be Bank of America. Do you also lean into the Mic Mayo idea that City Group and its whole revamp with some of its streamlining, hutting units, massive job cuts is going to be the real winner over time is going to be certainly an opportunity to be a winner. They've still got a lot of heavy lifting. Jane Frasier's leading the charge here, of course, and I think it's a very big, complicated job. It's turning around the notion liner. There's early progress, a lot of heavy lifting, as I said to do. But if she can succeed in the management, succeed this stock is definitely undervalued and it has great upside, but it's been a value trapped for many years, so we'll have to wait and see. Jarred I went to a seminar once at a firm long ago called Tucker, Anthony and Rlday, and I was lectured that banks are supposed to return nominal GDP plus a little bit. I'm going to center tendency. Is that make an eight, nine, ten percent once in your lifetime? JP Morgan has turned that upside down. You didn't see this coming. You're the expert, nor did anybody else. The returns of ten years, of twenty years or fifteen percent or so. Their thirty year return is solid double digit return. What did Harrison? What did Diamond get right? Tom? It's really Jamie Diamond. I think you could get give Harrison credit, I guess for merging with Bank one when Jamie Diamond was their CEO. And of course Diamond has taken over since then, and it's been his steadfast focus on delivering for shareholders, both through expansion and growth, but at the same time controlling expenses. They also have done a very good job in diversifying their revenue. Their consumer banking business, similar to Bank America, is very very profitable. On top of that, they've got a very strong capital markets business. The bear Stearns acquisition, which was very difficult in early years because of the reputational problems that came along with it, has worked out extremely well for them. So I would say the diversity of revenue, Tom and the focus on leading or delivering for shareholders. But back to Andrew Jackson, who you covered, you know years ago, Girardi, I mean, are they the fifth bank of the Uni United States? Over the holidays, somebody said one out of five profit dollars comes to JP Morgan. They're building their palace on fifth on Park Avenue right now. I mean to the Butch Cassidy idea, who are these guys? Are they the Bank of the United States. I don't think they're the Bank of the United States. But they have done a great job in delivering for their shareholders and for their employees and their communities as well. It's been a big growth engine for the company. This economy, the global economy as well. And again it's this leadership that they have under Diamond and his executive management team. And Tom, you know, many of his senior folks have left JP Morgan and are now CEOs of other banks, like Charlie Sharp at Wells Fargo, and so he's got a very deep bench and they execute. And that's the key. Tom. You know, banking is a commodity business. As you well know, it's all about execution. And JP Morgan is that you executed extremely well. What is the business model though, that you want to execute as a big US bank? Chard And this, I think is one of the key questions that we had during last year when the rise of private capital, private equity, private debt really was challenging the capital markets activity of certain big financial institutions. Can the JP Morgans, the Bank of Americas, the city groups get into the private debt world that in some ways has been stealing their lunch? I think it Ken, Lisa, And when you think about it, and you're right, the private equity private debt area is certainly growing much faster than the banks. But believe it or not, the shadow banking industry has been taking the bank's market share for forty years you go back to the early eighties and you look at the market share that the banks had of lending into the United States, it was well over forty percent. The private or shadow banking market was in the low twenties. Today it's completely flip flopped. The bank's market share now is in the low twenties and the shadow banking is in the fifty over fifty percent. So the banks have done it through consolidation. You know, when Tom and I were young, we had over eighteen thousand banks in the United States in the early nineteen eighties. Today there's forty six hundred. JP Morgan has been a big beneficiary of that, and they've been able to create those efficiencies. So yes, they can compete. They will compete, and I don't think that the banks are going to be put out of business, but certainly they don't have the market share that they used to have. But we have to remember too, the economy has grown dramatically in forty years, and they have the smallest slice of the pie, but they're more profitable than ever, not just JP Morgan, but other banks as well. What about the smaller banks, Given the fact that you're talking about a bigger slice of just overall activity. You haven't seen that so much in the smaller banks, and with rates forbading high, you're going to have real commercial real estate pressures as well. It's interesting, it depends on you know how small the bank is and who owns it. I've always maintained this banking system we have in the United States is obviously very polarized. You got the very small banks at one end and the very large banks at the other end. And if it's a non if it's if the owners of the smaller banks, private banks, or mutual savings banks or another group of banks, if their owners are comfortable with earning returns on equities of four or five percent, and they're not going to sell the bank as long as they have FDIC insurance, they're going to remain in business indefinitely. On the other end, if you do have a bank with thirty billion in assets and it's not earning up to what its shareholders want it's to earn, then they're going to have to consolidation. Consolidation is going to continue. We're in a pause right now, but the long term trend has been consolidation in the industry will continue to consolidate in the future and argue, Jared, let's finish on Washington if we can. I was speaking to your colleague Amy with Silverman just yesterday and were reflected on a line that came from Lori Cavasina, who I think described presidential politics in the election on the horizon like staring at the sun. I just wonder if that's what it's like for you. Have you given any thought to changes in leadership in Washington and what might mean for the companies to fall under your cover? John, It's a good question because it's going to be the topic du jour this year, of course, with the election coming. And what we can say is that under the current administration there's been more regulation of banks, particularly with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We don't know who's going to be running, you know, just yet in November, but if Trump is the candidate for the other party, the Republican Party, and if he was to win, his administration had less regulation for banks. So if that administration was to come back, you would have to expect they would change the heads of different regulatory agencies in twenty twenty five, and it probably would be less regulation for the banks as we move forward, you know, Johnny. I think Bloomberg Radio is missing it today because we're seeing the fireplace with your dacity here on Bloomberg Television talks about inflation South Paris, Maine. Three hundred and twenty five dollars per cord of red oak that's delivered to Shake Cassidy and he's he's popping like eight night cords of winter. He used a thing about that. I mean, it's adding up. It's expensive. But don't you love the smell. The smell's great. The damn dog is over by the fireplace. The smell you know, this dog's called Elizabeth. We won't call Aaron. We want to thank you, Joe Capital of Marcus, Thank you, sir. Let's get to it, and we do it with an authority that we have had through Auto Tournament of the Eastern Mediterranean. Norman rule joins us now senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the courses work for the nation in intelligence. Norman. When I say Lebanon, for all of us of a certain persuasion, we are completely formed by something frankly is stunning forty years ago, which is the Beirut Barracks bombing. When we lost marines at accountable iwo Jima level. Where are we now with Lebanon, with Hesbela, Do we have a relationship? Was it forever fractured forty years ago? That's an excellent point, and I regret I remember that incident well and lost friends. The event of forty years ago actually had a different message for the world. The US pulled out of Lebanon at that time, and Osama bin Laden later stated that watching the withdrawal of the United States from Lebanon was one of the motivators for him to undertake his operations because he realized the West could be pushed back out of the region. Are we being pushed back now? I mean within the multiple fronts at Lisa Abramowitz's outlined this morning Gods of the West Bank and again up to the border with Lebanon as the West is America being pushed out now? No, we have a very different profile, and indeed, diplomacy is likely going to increase in intensity and come out weeks because we need to come up with a way to move. Lebanese has belowed north of the Israeli border so that Israeli citizens can return to their homes. The thousands tens of thousand of Israeli citizens to open their businesses, go to school, and also so that tens of thousands of Lebanese can return south to that border which has become such a flashpoint in recent weeks. Yeah, hundreds of thousands of people have been misplaced or displaced as a result of some of the fighting on both sides. But Norman and I'm curious whether this is an escalation the fact that Israel did attack according to Hamas, but also with a wink, wink, nod nod from Israeli officials to kill this is Mamas executive. Well, to be clear, Israel has stated from the beginning of the October seventh massacred that it would eradicate the Hamas leadership responsible for that action, and therefore this is no surprise. I think what you have to look at is this drone attack, which Israel has not admitted but is understood to have undertaken, took place in an incredibly secure, prey conscious neighborhood, and it demonstrates an exquisite and dynamic intelligence capacity. So as Hesbula thinks about it's connor its response to this, it's got to think about what is known around us and what can we get away with and what will happen to the people who might be involved in that attack against Israel. Do you have any sense, Norman, of what the conversations are like with Hamas, with Hesbelah, with the Iranian leadership, given the fact that a lot of people think that they're taking some cues from Iran, that there has been funding from Iran, that you have the Iranian warship going to the Red Sea, and the huthis also Iranian fact making noise and trying to interrupt Western shipping lines. Iran It's proxies have no strategic drivers to involve themselves more fully in this conflict. It would impact multiple strategic equities for a game that is uncertain that they have multiple incentives to continue and perhaps raise the intensity of attacks against Israel to show that they have skin in the resistance game. I should also note that today, the January third, is the fourth anniversary of the killing of Cossum Solomoni, and that's a day when one would expect Iranian proxies to attack US or Israeli versus just for that symbolic anniversary. Exactly where I wanted to go normally let's talk about it, the assassination of the major General. It's easy to forget that it ever happened because several weeks later, many weeks later, we were all drowning in a global pandemic. What has happened since then with the relationship between the United States and Iran, between two different white Houses, very little. The indirect engagement that took place did produce the possibility of some sort of engagement, a hostage released by the Iranians in exchange for the release of personnel. But Iran's regional activities did not change, and I don't think the White House expected them to change. More So, Iran's nuclear program has continue to expand. And here's the important point. Iran is now producing enriched uranium at level that no state that is not pursued a nuclear weapon has ever produced. It has no civilian use for the nature of its current enrichment. So you have to ask yourself the question, has the West de facto recognized the Iranian military nuclear program? The White House would say no. The facts do raise the question. Norman a tough way to Segui here, but I'm going to do it as one final question. Taiwan continues to come up within our first of the year conversations. Do we have good intelligence on mainland China? The United States intelligence program against China, has stated by Central Intelligence Agency had Bill Burns, is robust and works significantly. I won't comment on those operations to the extent that I know of them, but I will say that this remains such a priority that it's an all source intelligence programs at all imagery and a variety of different aspects. We're going to have a good understanding of some of China's activities that will provide the warning policy maker's need for the update. You're insights so valuable, Norman Roll there for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Thank you, sir. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern. I'm Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always I'm the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen, and this is BloombergSee 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Gastrodiplomancy and South Korea's $40m campaign to share its food with the world. Plus: US inflation has gone down, Bank America to pay $250m for illegal fees, Shopify's new strategy to discourage unnecessary meetings, and more. Join our hosts Mark Dent and guest, Sara Friedman (Senior Marketing Manager at HubSpot) as they take you through our most interesting stories of the day. Follow us on social media: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thdspod  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thdspod/  Thank You For Listening to The Hustle Daily Show. Don't forget to hit Subscribe or Follow us on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode! If you want this news delivered to your inbox, join millions of others and sign up for The Hustle Daily newsletter, here: https://thehustle.co/email/  Plus! Your engagement matters to us. If you are a fan of the show, be sure to leave us a 5-Star Review on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hustle-daily-show/id1606449047 (and share your favorite episodes with your friends, clients, and colleagues). “The Hustle Daily Show” is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke.

Bank of America has become one of the largest banks in the United States, and has rebounded nicely from the Great Recession of 2008. We'll look at the history, business model, and financials of this banking giant.01:17 - History of Bank of America. The founder of Bank of America, Amadeo Peter Giannini, opened the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904, which later merged with another bank in Los Angeles in 1928 and was renamed Bank of America. The bank expanded through acquisitions and innovations such as the Bank America card, which later became Visa.05:37 - Bank of America's Recovery. After suffering major losses from acquiring Countrywide Financial, Bank of America paid over $23 billion in fines and downsized, but returned to growth in 2015 and is now the second largest bank by deposits in the US.08:01 - Financials of Bank of America. Bank of America's financials show mid single-digit growth across all segments, indicating a diversified financial business. The bank has seen gradual growth in interest income and revenue, and has been actively buying back shares while paying out a dividend.

Solange wir keine Stabilisierung bei den Renditen der US-Staatsanleihen sehen, wird der Gegenwind auf der Aktienseite anhalten. Mit den Renditen 2-jähriger Staatsanleihen bei 4,9% signalisiert der Rentenmarkt die wachsende Furcht, dass die FED erneut zu wenig macht. Anders gesagt: Eine Anhebung um 50 und nicht 25 Basispunkte am 22. März würde vom Markt aktuell begrüßt werden. Dass sich der Dow Jones im Vergleich zum S&P 500 und Nasdaq heute besser halten kann, liegt einzig und allein an Salesforce. Da der Dow Jones ein Preisindex ist, bringt allein der Anstieg der Salesforce-Aktien dem Index rund 170-180 Punkte ein. Ansonsten sieht die Ertragsbild erneut überwiegend flau aus. Best Buy, Box, Snowflake und Splunk leiden unter den Aussichten. Im Einzelhandel profitieren die Aktien von American Eagle und Macy's nach den Zahlen freundlich. Der Analystentag von Tesla wird an der Wall Street als enttäuschend beschrieben, mit der Aktie dementsprechend unter Druck. Trotz negativer geopolitischer Schlagzeilen tendieren chinesische Tech-Werte vorbörslich stabil. Morgan Stanley äußert sich positiv zu PDD, während die Bank America die Ziele für iQIYI anhebt. Abonniere den Podcast, um keine Folge zu verpassen! ____ Folge uns, um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben: • Facebook: http://fal.cn/SQfacebook • Twitter: http://fal.cn/SQtwitter • LinkedIn: http://fal.cn/SQlinkedin • Instagram: http://fal.cn/SQInstagram

► Zur Opening Bell+: https://bit.ly/360kochpc * Ein Podcast - featured by Handelsblatt. Helfen Sie uns, unsere Podcasts weiter zu verbessern. Ihre Meinung ist uns wichtig: www.handelsblatt.com/zufriedenheit Solange wir keine Stabilisierung bei den Renditen der US-Staatsanleihen sehen, wird der Gegenwind auf der Aktienseite anhalten. Mit den Renditen 2-jähriger Staatsanleihen bei 4,9% signalisiert der Rentenmarkt die wachsende Furcht, dass die FED erneut zu wenig macht. Anders gesagt: Eine Anhebung um 50 und nicht 25 Basispunkte am 22. März würde vom Markt aktuell begrüßt werden. Dass sich der Dow Jones im Vergleich zum S&P 500 und Nasdaq heute besser halten kann, liegt einzig und allein an Salesforce. Da der Dow Jones ein Preisindex ist, bringt allein der Anstieg der Salesforce-Aktien dem Index rund 170-180 Punkte ein. Ansonsten sieht die Ertragsbild erneut überwiegend flau aus. Best Buy, Box, Snowflake und Splunk leiden unter den Aussichten. Im Einzelhandel profitieren die Aktien von American Eagle und Macy's nach den Zahlen freundlich. Der Analystentag von Tesla wird an der Wall Street als enttäuschend beschrieben, mit der Aktie dementsprechend unter Druck. Trotz negativer geopolitischer Schlagzeilen tendieren chinesische Tech-Werte vorbörslich stabil. Morgan Stanley äußert sich positiv zu PDD, während die Bank America die Ziele für iQIYI anhebt. Abonniere den Podcast, um keine Folge zu verpassen! __________________________________________________ ► Zur Opening Bell+: https://bit.ly/360kochpc * ► https://www.instagram.com/kochwallstreet/ ► https://www.facebook.com/markus.koch.newyork ► https://www.youtube.com/user/kochntv ► https://www.markuskoch.de/ *Werbung

60 Seconds, you need to know before you go. Jon Najarian here. All right. Take a look at Bed Bath and Beyond. We talked about it twice. December and then again in January for unusual put activity. Well, they disappointed. And shares are down better than 10% in the pre. It's falling through $13 a share. Bang. It was 17 when we first cited those puts Take a look at Constellation Brands down 2%. Crude oil higher by 2%. That means Devon and all our energy picks continue to do well, so that's making me feel a little bit better . Nasdaq, of course, getting slammed again, down 80 in the pre. Walgreens Boots Alliance they beat on top and bottom line shares are higher by 3%. Bird gets an upgrade. That's Allbirds footwear company. They are higher by 6% and then a lot of those stocks in the banking space recovering. So let her see for Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, as well as Bank America, all recovering most of what they lost yesterday as the ten year moves to 174, just three pips away from overtaking the high of last year. I am Jon Najarian. Check out the Daily Crypto Byte at 10:00 a.m. Make sure you check out Pete's "The Take" at 10--------:30 and of course, 3@3 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Bang! Let's make it a good one.

On this episode, Ileana and Rob are grateful to be joined by our first guest from Nicaragua/Central America. This unique multi-cultural, multi-generational team that's come together across borders to empower and enable female health care, specifically sexual health and wellness of young women in Central and Latin America. The Lily Project team has successfully helped tens of thousands of young women from its origins in rural Nicaragua, but today's conversation explores the team's ambition to do more, and their coming launch of the “Chava” app/platform. Their growth of a for-profit technology based startup will take their localized impact in women's healthcare and scale it regionally and globally. They joined us from their investor tour of the USA in late November. The project, in all its forms, is the “Why” for Anielka, a young, university educated mother of one, and her operational and strategic partners, Jonathan Butcher and Susan Cotton. Jonathan and Susan met one another while studying for their Masters Degrees at the Pepperdine University, School of Social Entrepreneurship in Los Angeles, California, USA. Jonathan is an experienced operator in the hospitality industry with companies such as Marriott, Oakwood, and local experience with the Nicaraguan Initiative for Community Advancement who has a passion for life in Central America. Susan provides her decades of executive marketing and growth expertise with big brand companies such as WellPoint, Cal Fed and Bank America in the USA to help scale this new project to it's full potential! Feel free to follow and engage with Anielka, Susan and Jonathan here: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anielkamedina/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanscotton/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanzanebutcher/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-lily-project/ Website: https://www.thelilyproject.org/ We're so grateful to you, our growing audience of entrepreneurs, investors, builders, influencers and those interested in the entrepreneurial economies of Latin America and the under-represented entrepreneurial communities in the USA! Plug in, relax and enjoy some Spanish, English and a fun dose of spanglish as always. We're here to help inspire, educate and empower you, so that you can build the future! ¡Salud y gracias!, Mentors Today's Team --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mentorstoday/message

60 Seconds you need to know before you go Jon Najarian here, and I'm watching the market kind of melt right here, folks. We had as I said to Brian Sullivan this morning, a very large person purchase of SPXU that is a triple levered short on the s&p 500. somebody bought 42,000 42,000 of those calls at 17 strike yesterday. They have more than tripled their money so far, and it's not even open yet. The Dow is down over 500 points. Bank America, JP Morgan each down three because interest rates are plummeting Lower, lower, lower, and Charles Schwab gets downgrade from Goldman Sachs Didi globe, which was down another 5% yesterday after Tuesday's 19% drop is down another 6% today So China really help them out. And I'd say we're going to be watching aggressively exactly how low the bonds go. As far as the yield on the bonds. That's and of course bonds up yields down. I am Jon Najarian, make sure you check out Daily Crypto Byte 10am Eastern Time. Make sure you check out Pete's "TheTake" 10:30am Eastern Time, and I'll be back on the Halftime Report tomorrow. I think Pete's on the Halftime Report today. And of course I'll be on with three at three 3pm Eastern later today.

This week, Chris Naugle is back to further discuss how to "be your own bank". Chris talks about a life changing lesson that he learned in 2014 which changed the course of how he managed his money.Check out Joshua Smith's course RESOURCES: 

This week, Chris and Jeff are joined by Chris Naugle to discuss how to "be your own bank". Chris brings the secrets and tips that he learned from multi-millionaire/billionaires that have mentored him in the past, on how to use money.Check out Joshua Smith’s course RESOURCES: 

60 Seconds need to know before you go Jon Najarian here. Thank you, Johnson and Johnson. Yeah, that stocks down about 3% of the pre because of that news I told you about already just to reiterate, six out of 7 million people in the US 9 million worldwide six people have had women have had issues with blood clots. That is an extremely small number but out of an abundance of caution. The US has stopped using that vaccine by JNJ It's good for Moderna, however, which shows her up 7% FedEx Key Bank takes them to overweight JetBlue and Save SAVE which is Spirit Airlines. Susquehanna likes them both gives them both a nod booking also taken to buy from a hold. You might recall yesterday I was talking about Sabre SABR that runs a lot of stuff in the background. Norton Lifelock NLOK. Bank America takes them down to underperform saying hey, maybe the best times are behind them. A lot of that is COVID related, right? Well, we'll see. And Bristol Myers truist takes them to a buy from hold. I am Jon Najarian. Check out the Daily Crypto Bite. Now up over 50,000 views a day. Make sure you check it out. That's 10am Eastern. It's a free broadcast. The Daily Crypto Byte, also my three at three at 3pm. Eastern time. I'll see you then.

Good morning folks. Jon Najarian here. What a beautiful sunrise. And let's take a look at some beautiful stuff going on for Intel. Why? Because they're gonna be spending $20 billion on a couple new plants in Arizona. For that reason shares are up Taiwan Semi and AMD shares down. Take a look also at Gamestop speaking of down back down to the lows of last night right now down better than 14% Ouch. We're gonna keep our eye on that one. Bank of New York Mellon gets an upgrade a double upgrade, in fact, over at Bank America, then we've got Adobe they came out with some really strong numbers. Beating street estimates by 35 cents BANG! I am Jon Najarian. I'll be on the Halftime Report later today. And I encourage you to check out three at three every business day. Repeat. See you bang

60 Seconds need to know before you go Jon Najarian here had to stand under the streetlight because still pretty damn dark at this time in the morning. Take a look at UNH. They're buying Change Healthcare this morning. That's big news. Also big news. Raphael Warlock beating Kelly Locklear down in Georgia. So we're keeping our eye on that. I'll be on the Halftime Report talking about it. We've got Walgreens Boots Alliance selling Alliance Healthcare, to Amerisourcebergen that's ABC. We've got Morgan Stanley, they move their target on Tesla to $810. That's right. 810 baby. Deutsche Bank makes Bank America their top pick. I've got Cal Maine foods which the US largest egg producer beating big on earnings and solar stocks. How can you not because green agenda. As you know I've talked about Canadian Solar as well as FSLR I own both bang. I am Jon Najarian tune into three at three 3pm Eastern and of course, Halftime Report. New Nice to see you there.

What's good angry folk (we're working on what to call our fans)! We wanted to start streaming today while playing (you guessed it) We Didn't Playtest this, but wouldn't you know it, #StrugglePodcast is on brand like always. That didn't stop us from playing this silly card game and talking everything from politics, Bank America vs. Cash App and Big Rob's upcoming mixtape all the while munching on Loaded Baked Potato popcorn from Radically Baked Snacks! Yes we said Big Rob's mixtape and if you wanna hear it then tune in to find out how YOU can make that a reality!Love the episode? Subscribe so you don't miss another!!! Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/threeABP 

"These Principles Can Make Any Trader Successful" In episode 260 of the Desire To Trade Podcast, I sit down for a trader interview with full-time systematic trader Brent Penfold. Brent began trading when he joined Bank America as a trainee dealer in December 1983. It didn't take much time for him to become fascinated with the markets. These days, Brent is a licensed Futures Adviser, specializing in trading index and currency futures, but also trades a diversified portfolio of 16 markets across 8 market sectors. What's most interesting about his trading style is that he is usually done trading by 9:30 am and has the rest of the day to concentrate on his research. Watch: Previous interview with Brent Penfold Let's get started!! >> Watch the video recording! In This Episode, You'll Learn... What has happened in Bent's life since his last interview 00:40 What Brent's new book brings to the table to help traders improve 03:10 How Brent managed to make his trading in a way that gives him freedom 06:11 What would Brent recommend traders who want to become more systematic 08:11 How much evidence does a trader require to trade a systematic strategy 11:46 How to handle ideas that don't work and find what works 17:58 The importance of knowing your Risk of Ruin 19:42 Why a small % risk of ruin can be a big issue for traders 24:40 What it takes to become a good loser in trading 25:10 What is a key principle of trading that is rarely talked about - Humility - 27:32 "The worst thing that can happen to a trader is instant success" 30:02 Where to find Brent Penfold 31:29 And much more! What is one thing you are going to implement after listening to this podcast? Leave a comment below, or join me in the Facebook group! Resources Mentioned The Universal Principles Of Successful Trading book (recommended) Desire To Trade's Top Resources DesireToTRADE Forex Trader Community (free group!) Complete Price Action Strategy Checklist One-Page Trading Plan (free template) Recommended brokers: Pepperstone (get rebates when signing up with our partners) AxiTrader (use our link to get a special bonus) Desire To TRADE Academy About The Desire To Trade Podcast Subscribe via iTunes (take 2 seconds and leave the podcast a review!) Subscribe via Stitcher Subscribe via TuneIn Subscribe via Google Play See all podcast episodes How To Find Brent Penfold? Website What is one thing you are going to implement after listening to this podcast episode? Leave a comment below, or join me in the Facebook group!  

Bank of America Vice Chairman Anne Finucane was tasked with repairing Bank of America's reputation following the 2008 financial crisis. She opens up about the challenging professional obstacles she has faced, her rise to the top as a woman in finance, and work/life balance as a mother of four. Produced by Haley Draznin, CNN.

Brent Penfold: The Universal Principles Of Successful Trading In episode 77 of the Desire To Trade Podcast, I interview Brent Penfold, a futures trader based in Sidney, Australia. Brent began trading when he joined Bank America as a trainee dealer in December 1983. It didn’t take much time for him to become fascinated with the markets. These days, Brent is a licensed Futures Adviser, specializing in trading index and currency futures, but also trades a diversified portfolio of 16 markets across 8 market sectors. What’s most interesting about his trading style is that he is usually done trading by 9:30am and has the rest of the day to concentrate on his research. I personally found out about Brent as I came across his book The Universal Principles Of Successful Trading, which I’d highly recommend. For this new year, I’d love if you can take a few seconds to leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher. Let me know honestly what you think of the podcast because the only way I can improve is through your reviews. Share This! The best loser is the long-term winner. Embrace that! - Brent PenfoldCLICK TO TWEETUnderstand the risk of ruin, make it 0% & learn to be the best loser. - Brent PenfoldCLICK TO TWEET In This Episode, You’ll Learn… What are the universal principles of successful trading What’s the principle of maximum adversity. The single best measure you need to calculate about your trading. The common sayings in trading that aren’t true. Brent’s opinion on discretionary trading. Brent’s simple trading routine (to be done by 9:30am). Why you must step away from the screen. Why you need to stop researching for strategies. And much more! What is one thing you are going to implement after listening to this podcast? Leave a comment below, or join me in the Facebook group! Brent Penfold’s Books The Universal Principles of Successful Trading: Essential Knowledge for All Traders in All Markets Trading the SPI: A Guide to Trading Index Futures in Australia DesireToTRADE’s Top Resources DesireToTRADE Forex Trader Community (free group!) Complete Price Action Strategy Checklist One-Page Trading Plan (free template) DesireToTRADE Academy How To Find Brent Penfold? Index Trader About The Desire To Trade Podcast Subscribe via iTunes (take 2 seconds and leave the podcast a review!) Subscribe via Stitcher Subscribe via TuneIn Subscribe via Google Play See all podcast episodes

Host Lisa Kiefer interviews President & CEO of New Resource Bank in San Francisco, Vince Siciliano, about running a bank with purpose and rethinking what capitalism stands for by achieving environmental, social, AND financial returns for local communities - the bank as an agent of change.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. Speaker 2:And Speaker 1:you're listening to in [00:00:30] method to the madness of biweekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. I'm Lisa Kiefer and today I'm interviewing Vince Sicilian [inaudible], the president and CEO of new resource bank in San Francisco. Speaker 3:Okay. Speaker 1:Welcome to the program. [00:01:00] Thank you, Lisa. Hi. Nice to be here. Yes. I don't typically think of a bank as something that we would, uh, organization that we would interview. It's just not, you know, when you think of innovation, I don't think of that, but I've heard a lot about new resource bank. I understand that you coined the term where does your money sleep at night? You think of a bank as an agent of change. So why should our listeners in the bay area think of your bank as an innovator? Speaker 4:Because actually your money doesn't sleep [00:01:30] at night. Your money spends the night somewhere. Uh, in other words, you put your money unless it's in your mattress. It's in a bank and it's not living in the vault. It's actually out somewhere. So if you could imagine your dollar bill was a little miniature magic carpet and you could sit on it and fly around the world and see what your money is doing at night where it's spending the night, you might not be so happy. And we, we believe that money in banking can be used to do good in the community. Tell me some of the examples of where money can be that you're saying that we wouldn't be very happy about, [00:02:00] uh, open, open pit, uh, coal mining in West Virginia, blowing off the mountaintops of West Virginia or going down and producing palm oil in Indonesia. A lot of trade finance from the American banks will, we'll do that sort of thing. Speaker 4:Or if you get away from the loan side, there's another whole activity called the financial economy as opposed to the real economy. And a lot of banks really spend most of the life in that financial economy. And what is that? What are you talking about? The financial kind of me means that banks will invest their deposits and there are other sources [00:02:30] of funds in a speculating in commodities and foreign exchange. And buying bonds and stocks and hedging activities. Some small fraction of which may be really legitimate, but most of which is just trading for trading sake to make profit. And when you hear some of the big catastrophes that have happened over the last couple of years, it's usually been around the the financial economy where those catastrophes have happened. Speaker 1:Okay. This is really an unusual thing to hear from a bank. I think maybe I'm wrong, but I mean is there anyone else, this kind of thing, but you, Speaker 4:[00:03:00] well there are a couple kinds of banks that I would say are doing good things. So in general, the community bank, the more local regional banks that are headquartered in the community, if you look at their balance sheet, you're going to see that most of their funds are invested in loans that help the community grow. So the start with that would be there. Some banks are what are called community development financial institutions, and they are really focused on the inner cities and generating jobs. But as far as the bank like us that's trying to achieve wellbeing for the community and the planet, there's really only a handful of us in [00:03:30] the country. And you have one location in San Francisco, one location downtown who your clients are? I've, I've read some of them. Cowgirl creamery. So you know, a lot of small companies. Tell me about some of them. Speaker 4:So we lend to companies that we think are helping to build this or achieve this wellbeing in the community. So one whole sector would be organic food for example. So a cow girl, a hog island, Strauss creamery, alter ego, companies like that are all our clients and we're very good at helping young and not so young middle-sized [00:04:00] organic food companies grow. Another area would be having to do with clean energy. So solar energy, bio gas digesters, a lot of energy efficiency. We do a lot of lending in that whole area. A third area would be in the real estate world. A buildings that are built, uh, to be energy efficient. What's called lead construction or retrofits for those buildings. That would be another area for us. In the fourth area, a very large area is working with nonprofits. We have a lot of nonprofit clients, many of whom don't borrow. Speaker 4:They may deposit, [00:04:30] but some of whom do borrow. But beyond all that, anybody can be a sustainably minded business, a triple bottom line business, a business that's looking to achieve not only financial but also social and environmental returns. And that's the kind of client we want. And speaking of that though, you said that you want to go even beyond that, you want to go beyond the triple bottom line and talk about the difference that purpose and values make from an individual perspective. How do you go beyond triple bottom line and as a banking institution? Well, in the [00:05:00] end I think that everyone has a sense of purpose and should, should connect with that. And that's not something that's often talked about in the marketplace. Businesses have a purpose, but it's usually to maximize shareholder value. But if you really step back and look at your life, work and businesses, just a part of it. Speaker 4:And I guess the question is where do you get your sense of wellbeing from? Where do you get your sense of purpose in life from? And it's not normally from work, it's not really from the marketplace. But as we, as we grow up in this country, we're really pushed into marketplace. [00:05:30] A definition of self worth that comes from our job. It comes from the approval of others. It comes from, you know, what you own, what you're doing, what other people think of you. And, and really what we're saying is that's not a sense of wellbeing. It doesn't come from the marketplace. It should come from your values, your sense of purpose. You're your family, your, your work. Those are things that your sense of spirituality, your connectedness with nature. That's where your sense of wellbeing, you should come from, not from the marketplace. I'm kind of shocked [00:06:00] to hear this coming from a banker. Speaker 4:What do your peers in this industry think of what you guys are doing? Well, I think a lot of them think we're nuts. Uh, that, uh, really as the Wall Street Journal would say, yeah, if you deviate from profit maximization pushing to the very edges of the boundaries of into the gray zone of what's legal, if you deviate from that, you're really being inefficient and ineffective in your use of capital. And so we really call that unconscious capitalism, unconscious, capitalistic conscious [00:06:30] capital conscious conscious capitalism says, well, what are the values that we should bring into the balance sheet? What is, what about thinking about the future? For example, you know, most businesses have a discounted analysis of whether they'll do an investment or not. And if you look at the future that way, uh, frankly the value of the future is, is nothing that doesn't have a seat at the table. Speaker 2:[inaudible] Speaker 1:[00:07:00] if you're just tuning in, you're listening to method to the madness. A biweekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. Today I'm interviewing Vince [inaudible], the president and CEO of new resource bank in San Francisco. Speaker 5:[inaudible] Speaker 2:[00:07:30] okay. Speaker 4:You didn't found the bank. So tell me what was the impetus for the founding of this bank? Did you change the mission or was it always what you're talking about? The bank was founded with the mission of being a Green Bank and there were a couple of different groups that came together that were working [00:08:00] around that. Peter Lou was the, the fellow that really put the bank together and got it off the ground. The bank grew somewhat rapidly in the first couple of years. It ran into the recession and it really wasn't exclusively focused on this mission. There was a lot of what we would call classic community banking loans that were being made, but when the bank ran into its problems back in 2008 it was a chance to really in a way restart or refocus the bank and at that time I came in, new chairman, came in a number of new board members and new executives. Speaker 4:Then as [00:08:30] we refocused the bank we said, yeah, this is our mission. It's to be a green and sustainable bank, focused on a new idea model for banking and really helping change the way people think about banks and all of our lending needs to be mission oriented and compatible with that model. That's great that you took something that was bad for most everyone in the industry and made that an opportunity. And I understand that Al Gore and his investment group got interested generation investment capital, original investor. They are no longer an investor, but they did come in at the founding of the bank. I think they definitely [00:09:00] felt an affinity. But I think that banking is not a growth industry. It's a much harder industry than many investors realize. Tell me what, what the mission of numerous resource bank is now that you are, their mission very simply is to help achieve wellbeing for people and the planets. Speaker 4:And you might say, well, what is wellbeing? And I would ask you that everybody has a sense of what wellbeing is. And uh, and that's the nice thing about using the phrase wellbeing. Obviously it has to do with basic minimums of housing and schooling and education. And, [00:09:30] and, uh, but it goes beyond that. It goes, goes to problem solving problems. Are you solving? Well, we're really, we're really helping a lot of young companies get bigger companies that are triple bottom line focus that are trying to make a difference in the community that are not just profit oriented but worry about wellbeing. So how do you screen for these companies? I mean, you know, they have to be, they have to have the financials, but they also have to have this other ideal that you're talking about. Yes. So we have had our own, uh, internal survey that we would use with companies, a little questionnaire that helps [00:10:00] us understand what is their perspective on, on financial versus social versus environmental issues. Speaker 4:And we are now actually converting that over. There's a company called B lab and there are benefit corporations that are of triple bottom lines. They came up with this. And so we're now using their survey, uh, beginning next month. But, but really this is a journey in the woods. Somebody can come to us and they may be financially motivated, economically motivated and so they're redoing their building for energy efficiency and they're redoing their, looking at their product [00:10:30] line and they're changing their supply and they're using recycled materials and they all, that all may be just an economic motivation and that's fine. We're not here to pass judgment, but they are moving along that journey of sustainability. We talk about the the the, the newer comers actually being learners and then they become achievers and leaders and champions as they progress, as they're both commitment and competency to the idea of triple bottom line grows. Speaker 4:They move along this journey and we say we don't really care if you're a learner or a leader, [00:11:00] just that you're on this journey towards triple bottom line business. Speaking of triple bottom line, you got an award last year, best for the world. What does that mean and how many other banks, if any, were given that award? So actually it was all across all B Corp's. There are around 1500 B Corp's in the world, most of them in the u s and everybody is tested every year or two to say [inaudible] manufacturing and everything among all companies. The top 10% of all companies are called best for the world. [00:11:30] So that was quite an honor for us. It really is our DNA. It's really who we are. It's how we run internally. Uh, our values of transparency and community and sustainability and teamwork. All of these are internal as well as external practices. Speaker 4:I'm interested in your employees. I read that not only are your employees familiar with banking, but they're all doing, it sounds like pretty things outside of the bank that have to do either with community or sustainability. Can you talk about that? How you screen [00:12:00] for that kind of person? Because some of the challenges in banking, I would think we would be finding entrepreneurs who also understand sustainability. Our biggest challenge when people ask me what, what is our biggest challenge? It is finding financially oriented people, bankers that are also mission-oriented. Uh, at the beginning of the bank we found a lot of mission oriented people, but they didn't have the financial background. When you say missionary you mean your mission? This mission about triple bottom line sustainability. Then we found more bankers, but they weren't particularly [00:12:30] as mission-oriented as we wanted. And so really now we've gotten very, uh, thorough and narrow about finding people that are both financially oriented and, and get our mission. Speaker 4:There's an expression, you know, get it wanted and can do it. And that's what we want people to get it, want it and can do it and therefore they'll fit into the bank. Well, but wellbeing as a personal concept too. So we want everybody to be achieving wellbeing. And that means how do you look at their life and how do they look at what they do outside of out of their work life? In fact, we've [00:13:00] started a process, we call career conversations, which is to really crack open the, the, the pretend belief that someone's gonna work at a company for the rest of their life. They're really not. Uh, so let's not pretend they are. And let's, let's open the door to where do you want to be in five years and how can we help you get there. It's a different way to interact with your employees. Speaker 4:And I think at first people don't believe it. They feel like it's, no, I'm, maybe I'm being a trader if I, or they think you're just trying to find out if they, if they're going to leave. But that in fact, you know, we had an example of an employee who came and said, well, [00:13:30] I'd eventually like to have my own little business that services nonprofits does the back office for nonprofits. But in order to get there, I'm going to need to understand accounting better. And I'd love to spend a couple of years in the banks finance department that would help prepare me for that. Terrific. I mean, I would welcome that. And then eventually they'll, they'll leave and they'll start their own business and there'll be a raving fan and that'll be terrific. How many employees do you have? I think about 42 employees. So that's small enough that you could actually know everyone. Speaker 4:Oh yes. Absolutely. So I understand that one of them works for Amazon Watch. [00:14:00] One of your vice presidents is on the climate panel of San Francisco City of San Francisco. I mean they're doing all these really interesting outside things that aligned with your mission aligned that happened after or did you pick them because there was there? I would say a lot of that came after they were already employees, but they certainly did bring their own interests and their own passion for the mission with them. But we promote that. We want them to be involved with these, these community building activities that it's great and we want [00:14:30] them to discover all the skills and passion they have in life and be able to, to exercise that. You talk about helping small businesses. Tell me why an individual would want a bank at your bank. Like let's say myself, what would be my motivation? Speaker 4:Well, we go back to the question of where does your money spend the night? And so do you know what your money is doing? And so at a bank like new resource bank, we're saying that you can see where your money spends the night. We, we have reports that show quite clearly what our loan [00:15:00] portfolio looks like, how much money we've let into organic food or alternative energy or nonprofits. And uh, that's all our lending is, is mission oriented. It has been for the last six years. It's pretty transparent. You can see what we do. So as opposed to saying, I'm putting my money in one of the big banks. In fact, I like to ask the question, not only where does your money spend the night, but does your bank have convictions? If you think about that word, convictions for a moment, it's double edge sword there. Speaker 4:One kind of conviction, which means values. The other kind of conviction [00:15:30] means have you been convicted of a crime? So if you look at all the banks that have recently been convicted of rate fixing for international funds or many of the other crimes that, that they've pleaded no, not guilty to now they've actually pleaded guilty to, yeah. Well, even finding a local bank, quote unquote is kind of difficult because you find out that your local bank is actually owned by a big French bank or a, you know, it's, it's not so easy to know, but there are 30 or 40 local banks in the bay [00:16:00] area and you can usually pretty easily find out what you're right. Sometimes they have a foreign parent, but most of the time, uh, you can make it more difficult to know where your money sleeps. That's right. And credit unions are another good place to go because they lend exclusively in the community so they, they would be a good place too. Speaker 2:[inaudible] Speaker 1:if you're just tuning [00:16:30] in, you're listening to method to the madness of my weekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. Today I'm interviewing Vince Sicilian, the president and CEO of new resource bank in San Francisco. Speaker 5:[inaudible] Speaker 2:[00:17:00] okay. Speaker 4:Does this mission that you have for new new resource bank, does it come back from your early years, say at Stanford, getting a biology degree, getting a master's here in Berkeley and environmental planning? Are you hearkening back to your early values and, and that's what you've brought to banking, or did you always have that? I was an accidental banker. I had no desire [00:17:30] to be a banker. I don't know if anybody grows up wanting to be a banker. Actually. And a, my wife also went to Stanford and Berkeley. She studied Chinese history and language. She wanted to continue that in Taiwan where Stanford has a program. I needed a job, like we couldn't just move to Taiwan. And my father, uh, called someone he knew at Bank America to say, hire my wonderful son. And so I did not have their normal MBA sort of profile. Speaker 4:And when I was hired at Bank of America, I remember, and we were sent right [00:18:00] to Asia to go to Taiwan, which was, which was the plan. And I remember being hired and on the way to Taiwan, we stopped at the divisional office in Tokyo. And I was told I was a legacy hire. Uh, which meant I was someone who was hired. You really wasn't qualified. It was more because of what the Chinese would call Guangxi or connections. And, uh, but I ended up spending 10 years, 10 very good years with Bank of America, seven years in Asia. And I discovered that the most interesting part of banking is that you're supporting other companies. You're really involved. [00:18:30] It's really the business of everyone else's business. So eventually I left B of a and became the CEO of a local bank in San Diego and I've never looked back. Speaker 4:I've been a banker for the rest of my life. Uh, but it was accidental and I've always been values oriented. And this opportunity here in the bay area when it came up was an opportunity to bring back in not just values of integrity and transparency, but also the values around environment and community and the future. And it's perfect cause it's San Francisco. I mean you, you've got a great audience [00:19:00] there and people who really understand the concepts, it is perfect. People do understand. And I think one of the, one of the great, uh, weaknesses of capitalism is not only that, it doesn't price in a lot of these values we're talking about, but it really discounts the future. Meaning that, uh, we don't give much weight to the future. We really are so present oriented. And what I like to do is ask a question. Uh, if I were to give you with $1,000 right this moment or $5 million in a hundred years, which would you take? Speaker 4:And [00:19:30] uh, and don't worry about your, the credit risk. It's going to be with the u s treasury, unless you think the government's going to fail. It'll be there, it'd be bitcoin or whatever, but you'll get your $5 million in a hundred years or a thousand dollars now. And, uh, most people I should ask you, what would you, what would you take? I'd take the thousand dollars now. So most people will take the thousand dollars now. And when I asked them why, it's because while I'm out around in a hundred years. Well, that's true. And that's the very point. You're not around in a hundred years, but what would the, what's the value of [00:20:00] the lives of your grandchildren in a hundred years? And most people will say, well, that's priceless. So what's the present value of priceless? Well, it should be priceless. But in fact, in our economic system, the present value is really nothing. Uh, the net present value of any future number after a hundred years is very little. Speaker 4:5 million in a hundred years is only worth 1000 bucks a day. That does not buy you a seat at the table. So we aren't making decisions for the long run because our economic system doesn't encourage us to. It discourages us from that. So what do we [00:20:30] do about that? That brings you back to conscious capitalism, that it also brings you back to the need for the government to take that longer term perspective. And frankly, that's at the heart of the climate change debate. I hate to call it a debate, but that small fraction of people that doubt climate change, because if you admit that there is climate change caused by man, then you have to admit that the marketplace can't handle that. It's not pricing that into goods and services. So that means the government has a role to play in order to recognize the value of a hundred years from now in today's [00:21:00] transactions. Speaker 4:B Corp and Saxby and groups like that are putting, I mean I think that they're accelerating that conversation that certainly a CSB and and uh, the FASBI as well. They're all beginning to require disclosures. That type of valuing companies that do take into consideration. Yes. Triple bottom line. And part of the, uh, part of the divested invest movement with respect to fossil fuels. The argument is that a lot of the so called reserves of the oil companies really are valueless [00:21:30] because if we really do want to control climate change, we're never going to be able to spend that much carbon into the economy. So you have one location in San Francisco and I assume that in the future you want to have more than one location, maybe you don't. So what does the future bring for new resource bank and how will you scale up if you are going to grow to be something across the nation? Speaker 4:Maybe we would like to scale it up. We are now lending outside of the bay [00:22:00] area. Outside of California. We have clients up and down the west coast. We have clients in other states and even some on the east coast with electronic banking. It's the idea of a lot of locations is unnecessary. So in the bay area for example, one branch will do, but we will look at other cities. We will look at southern California. We'll look at some of the obvious cities around the western half of the u s that how about farther out, what about New York City and and Massachusetts, places that are in like mindset about sustainability [00:22:30] and certainly like mindset, but I think we want to start with something that's geographically closer so that a, I mean bank skin can get in trouble when they go across the country and open offices and they don't really know the area very well. Speaker 4:So we would want to stay in the western half of the United States for now, but go to communities that are like minded, that share the values, that have an infrastructure and an economy that's already moving in this scale that like how do you finance that kind of expansion? Well, we have capital and we're basically, it's about leveraging our capital, so we have raised capital [00:23:00] several times. We have very supportive shareholders and we will go back for more capital or or bring a new shareholders as we go to some of these other locations. You talk about your mission helping business clients meet the challenge of operating sustainably and profitably, but how do you actually help them? I know you know you can give them money, but I assume you're talking about a different kind of help. Yes, money. We help our clients. Sure. People need money as they grow for what's called working capital, but [00:23:30] let's take a young organic food client that has achieved some sales and now they're beginning to sell into whole foods or the beginning of the sell into a Costco. Speaker 4:We have lots of clients that sell into whole foods and Costco and so there's certain tricks of the trade if will. There are certain challenges that come to come about when you're signed at Costco or whole foods. Um, we have a network of these organic clients, so our, our folks are able to advise our younger companies, our newer companies, uh, and provide them with some [00:24:00] expertise. That's nonsense. Like industry consultation, non right industry consultation, strategy ideas, networking ideas, marketing ideas that are different from just providing a line of credit free. Absolutely customer service. You can compete, we can compete on the basis of being experts in finance, but lots of banks are experts in finance. That's not really the goal. The idea is not to be promoting ourselves, but really is to promote, is to be promoting our [00:24:30] clients. So get to the other side of the table and understand what the client is passionate about, understand what they want to be best in the world about, understand what their economic engine is and then be supportive on, on a much broader set of dimensions. Speaker 4:Before we were running out of time now, but I want to give you a chance to talk about how you got personally invested in the idea of community sustainability and working in a place that aligns with your personal mission. [00:25:00] That's a great question and it's a little bit more philosophical. Uh, I think that, you know, we're brought up to one to achieve business success. How high can I go? How much money can I make, what kind of house in car while I have, et cetera. The problem is it's never so simple and you went ends up with failures. So I've had failures in my life. I've been fired from jobs and when I've been fired, I feel bad about myself, which means that my sense of significance and security has been totally wrapped up in my work [00:25:30] rather than in something else. And you know, we have this expression here in the bay area that people say, I want to do good, but I want to do well and uh, I don't want to have to compromise on my investment return while I'm doing good. Speaker 4:So really what they're saying is, I want to do well and maybe I get to do some good. Or actually I think what they're saying is I want to do well, just do well and then I can make a lot of money and then I can be a good partner and do good later on. And I think that's the really the wrong dimension. It's really not about, uh, about [00:26:00] doing good and doing well. It's really about being well, how am I as a human being? How can I live my life in a way that's centered in my values and community and sense of purpose and connection to nature and spiritual life? How can I be well and then go out into the world and work and do good. And I think it's, you think that will follow. That's a much different perspective. And then we, you're rooted, you're centered, you're going to be stronger as life goes up and down. Speaker 4:You will do good in your life. And um, you obviously you need to make money and survive and be able to retire, [00:26:30] but it's a whole different kind of passion and focus. Uh, and, and connectivity with community. It's really moving from ego to eco, from, from ego being edging good out to Eco, which is embracing the or embracing community. It's a whole different way to live your life. And I've learned the hard way that that's where I want to live my life. One thing people don't realize is the power they have to use their money to do good. In other words, they think of themselves as, oh, I'm just a small person. I don't have that much in the bank. But they go out [00:27:00] and they buy organic food. They go out and buy organic peanut butter. So why don't you use an organic bank? Speaker 4:Why don't you see that your money carries your values and your money can be used as an agent of change in every single buying decision you do, whether it's your bank or the foods you buy or the clothes you buy. And that's, I want to encourage people to think of it that way. They have real economic power to do good with their money. No matter how much money that is, no matter how much money that is. My daughter told me about a study. People are actually much happier if they are [00:27:30] making a certain amount of money. Well with the study says is that once you make over you only need to make a certain amount and once you, once you go over that amount of money, which is remarkably small, it's in the 50 to 75,000 a year maybe per person a year. Not Happier if that's at all. Speaker 4:Yeah, that's what it was. Anyway. That was pretty interesting. So if um, any of our listeners here in the bay area would like to get ahold of you, do you have a website or an email address where they can contact you directly or yes, the bank, yes there is. [00:28:00] We do have a website, new resource bank.com I'm on that website. My email addresses visa silvano@newresourcebank.com where people can call into our main number and they can ask for on the lending side a Gary Grof or on the depository side they can ask for for a Mary Resendiz or, or Janiece. Uh, so there are lots of people they can ask for, but you can feel free to email me as well. Well, thank you for being on the program. Fit is a great pleasure. Thank you. Speaker 1:[00:28:30] You've been listening to method to the madness of biweekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators Speaker 5:[inaudible]. Speaker 1:If you have questions or comments about this show, go to the Calex website, find method to the madness and drop us an email. You'll also find a link [00:29:00] to previous podcasts. Speaker 5:[inaudible] Speaker 1:tune in again in two weeks at the same time. Speaker 3:Great. Nicole. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Al Emid and I'm back here on New Books Network after a long absence. I had a good excuse though – I was finishing up the book entitled Investing in Frontier Markets, to be released this Fall by John Wiley & Sons and co-authored with Gavin Graham. Barring unforeseen circumstances I will be back here regularly with reviews of timely books in the investing and business categories, which I've covered for years as a journalist. And in the business news category, firings, layoffs and forced resignations have occurred frequently for the past five years. Anyone who has recently lost what seemed like a secure job can be forgiven for wondering where he or she went wrong – but in many cases the fault did not lay with the terminated employee. And we can understand how any individual who has fulltime employment might wonder how long that will last. In the past year, blue-chip employers have terminated thousands of employees: 2400 at Dow Chemical, 5400 at American Express, over 4300 at Bank America and even 4000 at Google. The list goes on: United Technologies, Thomson Reuters, Proctor & Gamble and others. And declining revenues don't always explain the layoffs. In late May ESPN confirmed plans to lay off 400 employees despite an increase in operating income of 8%. ESPN had not had any layoffs since 2009. And we know that positions in the executive suite have become equally uncertain. So in the face of all of this how does one survive? Suzen Fromstein offers some clues in her book Suits and Ladders: Ten Proven Ways to Keep Your Job Safe (Carrick Publishing, 2013) and it contains what she describes as universal survival strategies. Her book is on Amazon Kindle in ebook and paperback versions. Suzen fesses up and says that her own failure to keep her job inspired her book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m Al Emid and I’m back here on New Books Network after a long absence. I had a good excuse though – I was finishing up the book entitled Investing in Frontier Markets, to be released this Fall by John Wiley & Sons and co-authored with Gavin Graham. Barring unforeseen circumstances I will be back here regularly with reviews of timely books in the investing and business categories, which I’ve covered for years as a journalist. And in the business news category, firings, layoffs and forced resignations have occurred frequently for the past five years. Anyone who has recently lost what seemed like a secure job can be forgiven for wondering where he or she went wrong – but in many cases the fault did not lay with the terminated employee. And we can understand how any individual who has fulltime employment might wonder how long that will last. In the past year, blue-chip employers have terminated thousands of employees: 2400 at Dow Chemical, 5400 at American Express, over 4300 at Bank America and even 4000 at Google. The list goes on: United Technologies, Thomson Reuters, Proctor & Gamble and others. And declining revenues don’t always explain the layoffs. In late May ESPN confirmed plans to lay off 400 employees despite an increase in operating income of 8%. ESPN had not had any layoffs since 2009. And we know that positions in the executive suite have become equally uncertain. So in the face of all of this how does one survive? Suzen Fromstein offers some clues in her book Suits and Ladders: Ten Proven Ways to Keep Your Job Safe (Carrick Publishing, 2013) and it contains what she describes as universal survival strategies. Her book is on Amazon Kindle in ebook and paperback versions. Suzen fesses up and says that her own failure to keep her job inspired her book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m Al Emid and I’m back here on New Books Network after a long absence. I had a good excuse though – I was finishing up the book entitled Investing in Frontier Markets, to be released this Fall by John Wiley & Sons and co-authored with Gavin Graham. Barring unforeseen circumstances I will be back here regularly with reviews of timely books in the investing and business categories, which I’ve covered for years as a journalist. And in the business news category, firings, layoffs and forced resignations have occurred frequently for the past five years. Anyone who has recently lost what seemed like a secure job can be forgiven for wondering where he or she went wrong – but in many cases the fault did not lay with the terminated employee. And we can understand how any individual who has fulltime employment might wonder how long that will last. In the past year, blue-chip employers have terminated thousands of employees: 2400 at Dow Chemical, 5400 at American Express, over 4300 at Bank America and even 4000 at Google. The list goes on: United Technologies, Thomson Reuters, Proctor & Gamble and others. And declining revenues don’t always explain the layoffs. In late May ESPN confirmed plans to lay off 400 employees despite an increase in operating income of 8%. ESPN had not had any layoffs since 2009. And we know that positions in the executive suite have become equally uncertain. So in the face of all of this how does one survive? Suzen Fromstein offers some clues in her book Suits and Ladders: Ten Proven Ways to Keep Your Job Safe (Carrick Publishing, 2013) and it contains what she describes as universal survival strategies. Her book is on Amazon Kindle in ebook and paperback versions. Suzen fesses up and says that her own failure to keep her job inspired her book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seems there's something new every time I turn around to do a new 'sode of Succotash. Last time it was our inclusion as part of Stitcher Smart Radio's comedy lineup. This time Jesse Fox's Splitsider.com blog This Week In Comedy Podcasts has tapped me to be one of the contributing writers (which include Bradford Evans, Eli Terry, and Joel Mandelkorn.) So look for me to talk up some of the funniest comedy p'casts we have (and will) feature right here on Succotash. I was also just guesting on Radio Rubber Room, a radio show/podcast out of Richmond, Virginia. So thanks to hosts Derrick Vega, Dan Anderson, and Kris Manzelli to inviting to call in for a chat. (You can check that out by clicking the linked name of their show, above...) This episode I was happy to lure our booth announcer Bill Heywatt into the studio to share one of his favorite "adult beverage" recipes in our very first Boozin' With Bill segment. I can't attest to the tastiness of anything Bill might suggest but the formula is posted here if you want to test your mettle...and your taste buds. If our listeners enjoy what Bill's mixing up, you can be sure he'll be back with more libations. Here's a rundown of the podcasts and links that we're featuring on this episode of Succotash: • CB RadioThis straight-ahead interview show is hosted by Cameron Buchholtz, a standup comedian based in Austin, Texas. The clip we have features him chatting with Michael Ian Black, he of The State and Stella sketch troupes, as well as his being a screenwriter and director in his own right. (MIB also co-hosts one of our show's faves: Mike And Tom Eat Snacks...) • Mike And Tom Eat SnacksHearing Michael Ian Black on the previous p'cast gave me the itch to spinout a clip from MATES this episode. As I mention, I never miss an installment of this funny show with him and Tom Cavanagh. If you're one of their listeners who don't like to know in advance what they're snacking on, Spoiler Alert: This show we clipped was all about Dunkin' Donuts' Munchkins. • Burst O' DurstThis episode brings a double dose o' Durst your way. (Will Durst churns out his reports every week so, with our production schedule, we usually have more than we can handle. But not this week!) I actually clipped two Dursts together for the first blast - which is all about how the Republicans can't decide who to rally around. The second BOD is focused on Bank America's decision to heap a $5/month surcharge on ATM users. • Pod AwfulFirst time on Succotash, Pod Awful comes to us from New York City, where its billed as a "comedy talk show". Hosted by Jesse P-S (Initials? Alias? Random letters? I can't tell...), this clip also features comedian Glen Tickle. Jesse sent us this clip as being representative of his show, and it features a heart-warming story of a father using a unique test to determine if his son is gay. • Sweet Feathery JesusBeen dancing around with the hosts of this podcast to try to get a clip lined up and now we have one! The hosts - Belasco, Booze, Dr. P and Hiccup - cover a variety of topics. They comes from a diverse set of backgrounds, which makes for some...spirited discussions. • Bob's BoneyardAt long last we also have a clip from Bob's Boneyard. The guys who run this podcast - Bob Fresh, Manny Torres, and Manny Fresh - have been promising a clip for a while but when I heard one of their shortened offerings (called Bonespurs), the argument about the difference between vampire zombies vesus zombie vampires was too good to pass up. • Hotshot Whiz KidsHere's our second clip from a New York podcast this episode (this one from Buffalo), although hosts Mike Cline and Mark Davila call it "internet talk radio". There was something provocative to me about a conversation that starts with flu victims becoming zombies and ends up (in less than five minutes) talking about chaperoned sex with minors. That's the essence of podcasting in a nutshell... • The Todd Glass ShowIt's fun when I find podcasts being done by people I've known through my long years in the comedy biz. Todd Glass is a classic standup comedian, well-respected in the industry - and it was just a couple of months ago when I sitting in the green room of the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley when he was discussing trying to pull his own podcast together. Well, here it is, part of the Nerdist network! Episodes run two hours and feature Todd, his crew and at least one comedian guest each show, this time with Gary Gulman on board. In addition to our clips and our feature with Bill, this episode features two commercials from our longtime sponsor Henderson's Pants. One of the styles they're pitching, the High-Waisted Hiphuggers, got its genesis from the mind of one of our listeners, comedian Ed Wallick. Thanks, Ed! That's about it. You can listen to us right here on the webstream, download us from iTunes (a review wouldn't hurt!) or give a listen for us on Stitcher Smart Radio! Enjoy this episode and please remember to pass the Succotash! — Marc Hershon