Happy Hour [10/3/23]

I need a drink

10/3/23 Hannibal 26

It’s time to cast your ballot for the Cadbury Spokesbunny.

You can vote once a day between now and March 14. The ten finalists are all recuse pets, most with special needs and each worthy of the honor. My choice is the adorable Cypress, a beaver orphoned after her dam was blown up.

I hope everyone is finished with work and ready to enjoy the weekend. What are you drinking, Deadsplinters?

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26 Comments

  1. Dam was blown up?  Was it anti-beaver terrorists or some kind of  meth lab gone wrong?  We are going to a neighbors for dinner so looks like a wine night.

  2. the linky link seems to be broken for me…says the page doesnt exist

    anyways…im drinking amstel… which is a decent dutch lager

    i am also using natures you’ve had enough for today timer

    it snowed all day….and im keeping the beer in the snow next to the shed

    stopped snowing and with the sky now clear the temperatures are aproaching somewhere around -8c

    the little path i keep trundling along to fetch a beer and the one i use to get to my favoured smoking spot next to the house are rapidly turning in to icy death traps

    figure when i inevitably go arse over tits out there…its probably bed time

      • Ha!😆😂🤣

        Hannibal, up at the 39°-40°F mark, *around here* that’s “leave your coat at home, and just wear a hoodie!” weather!

        It’s a warm snap for once!😉😁💖💞💗

        Funny, isn’t it, how “cold” is such a relative thing, depending on where we all live?💖

          • You’re not a baby, it’s all relative to what people are acclimated to!

            Like the same temperature can happen on a Saturday in March and a Saturday in October, and in October I’m going to be a whiny whinypants about how cold it is and waaaah summer is gone. In March I’m gonna be like wow almost shortsleeve weather!

            • THIS PART!!!

              When it *first* hits 40° regularly in the fall?

              I’m about ready to break put my nearly knee-high Sorels, and i DO throw my Winter Coat on, over my hoodies!😆😂🤣

              It’s just that by *this* time of winter, we’re alllll SO sick & tired of the winter, the dark, the cold, & the snow, that these “mild” 40-ish degree days seem *amazing* annnnd we go a bit crazy, celebrating the idea of it finally getting warm again (at some point, in the next 4 months!🤪)!

              Heck, I remember 30 years ago, this coming April,** when we went to Florida for our school band trip! The temps down there were in the 60’s mostly, and we were loving it!!! Running around in our shorts & t-shirts, with *maybe* a sweatshirt to stay warm…

              And the weather folks were reminding folks to “bundle up a bit out there–it’s going to be chilly!”

              **i can remember the 30 years ago part, because we had an “off day,” where no performances and no major activities were planned, on the 19th… and I can pinpoint *that* day, because most of us girls had decided to get out our beach towels & work on our tans in the parking lot of the dive-motel where we were staying…

              The news of the fire that killed Koresh’s followers in Waco hit the airwaves, and was broadcast on all the radios, as we were out in the sunshine.

  7. I’m drinking a decent pinot noir. My company is in an uproar. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed today, and they did the banking for a ton of our customers. So there is much gnashing of teeth and general consternation.

     

    • …damn…that came on sudden, too…pretty sure you deserve that drink

      …it came up on the other thread, courtesy of @bluedogcollar …the twitter thread screenshots but didn’t seem to link to an article about thiel being involved in driving the stampede…I mean…it’s a run…but the numbers aren’t small & it happened so fast I figure maybe it deserves to be thought of as a stampede…there were some bulls involved?

      • …so…I don’t know if this is anything you want to think about this side of monday…but on the off chance that the possibility $160billion+ of deposits in that bank aren’t covered by the FDIC thing & may or may not be recoverable is a problem you’ve got enough degrees of separation from not to need another bottle

        …the FT has it that the UK arm declared itself an independent entity earlier today & asked for the better part of £2billion to bridge its liquidity…so it’s now “in resolution”

        …it also…& I apologize since it seems like a cheap shot…described it as “a very american mess”
        https://archive.ph/pmzW2

        …but…there might be some kind of restitution for the people who currently can’t get their money…if they can hold out…which I’m guessing at least some of them may struggle to do?

        The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it would retain all of the deposits from SVB for later disposition. The regulator historically has sought to merge failed lenders with a larger and more stable institution.
        […]
        The ramifications of SVB’s troubles may be widely felt. The lender is the banking partner for half of US venture-backed tech and life sciences companies, and is a large presence in offering credit lines to the $10tn private capital industry.
        […]
        The four biggest US banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America — also lost $52.4bn of market value in Thursday trading.
        [https://archive.ph/gqQCw]

        …it…does not sound like a relaxing weekend for a lot of people

        “There’s a lot of money that flows through those bank accounts every day that suddenly is not moving. There will be big consequences for the whole ecosystem. Employees getting paid, suppliers getting paid, financing [rounds] closing.”
        […]
        “Pay runs in flight for today out of SVB have not been paid,” Parker Conrad, the company’s chief executive, wrote on Twitter on Friday morning.
        […]
        Deposit holders interviewed by the Financial Times were hoping for the bank to be bought out of receivership and for a new owner to reopen accounts and resume lending. But if no buyer is found, they feared the situation will deteriorate further.

        One VC said it was fielding calls from nervous start-up founders who wanted advice on how to communicate the payroll issue to employees and feared they would have to start laying people off if no buyer for SVB could be found in the next few days.
        [https://archive.ph/um9q9]

        • I’m not totally sure about all of the fallout yet. So far, I just had to write a fact sheet on how to transfer your funds to another bank. But it seems that a lot of the money is locked down since the FDIC took over. And SVB was one of our preferred partners, so we basically recommended it to a lot of people. That’s … not going to sit well.

          FDIC insurance covers $250,000, and many startups have $50 million or more in the bank. We advise them to spread it around (there are actually treasury management services that will do that for you) but many founders didn’t bother. I mean, who figures the bank will collapse? It’s not 1929.

          However, the reality is that the government will make the customers whole. That’s what happened in 2008. The US can’t afford to have its banking system look weak, so they’ll get bailed out (I mean, SVB is dead forever — another bank will step in).

          The downside of that is it will take time to sort it out. Which is not reassuring to the startup employees who are sitting around waiting for their paychecks. To be fair, these are typically fairly well-off engineers, scientists, and computer programmers, so none of them should miss any meals, but missing paychecks ain’t great no matter what your situation is. You can’t eat stock options.

          The other question is what happened? Did the bank fudge its required reserves? Where were the regulators? At my old community bank we had federal auditors there six months out of every year. Who the hell was minding the store? And where’s the damn money? Banking is pretty much idiot-proof. The guard rails are pretty rigid. Did SVB make a bunch of bad loans?

          I’m sure I’ll hear more on Monday.

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