Invictus Pinay

06/08/2024

06/08/2024

THE WORLD'S FIRST BILLIONAIRE

John D. Rockfeller (July 8, 1839–May 23, 1937), the founder of Standard Oil, was once the richest man in the world. He was the world’s first billionaire.

"He amassed a net worth of at least $1 billion in 1916. When Rockefeller died in 1937, his net worth was estimated to be approximately $340 billion in today's dollars."

By the age of 25, he had one of the largest oil refineries in the United States. He was 31 when he became the world's largest oil refiner. At 38, he controlled 90% of the oil refined in the United States. At fifty, John was America's richest man. As a young man, every action, attitude, and connection was crafted to establish his wealth.

But at the age of 53, he fell unwell. His entire body became wracked with pain, and he lost all his hair. In total anguish, the world's lone millionaire could buy anything he wanted but could only eat soup and crackers.

According to an associate, "He couldn't sleep, wouldn't smile, and nothing in life meant anything to him". His personal, highly trained physicians indicated that he would die within the year. That year passed painfully slowly. As he approached death, he awoke one morning with the faint understanding that he would not be able to bring any of his fortune with him to the next world.

The man who could dominate the commercial world suddenly realised he had no control over his personal life. He informed his solicitors, accountants, and management that he intended to devote his assets to hospitals, research, and charity work. John D. Rockefeller started his foundation.

The Rockefeller Foundation financed Howard Florey and his colleague Norman Heatley's penicillin research in 1941. But arguably the most astounding aspect of Rockefeller's narrative is that when he began to give back a fraction of all he had gained, his body's chemistry changed dramatically, and he recovered.

He was expected to die at the age of 53, but he survived to reach 98 years old. Rockefeller learnt gratitude and returned the great bulk of his money. This made him whole. It's one thing to be healed. It is another to become fit. He was a devout Baptist who attended the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Before he died, he wrote in his diary: "God taught me that everything belongs to Him, and I am merely a conduit to carry out His will. My life has been one long, happy holiday since then; full of work and play, I let go of my worries along the road, and God was wonderful to me every day.

pctto

10/09/2023

The lack of time is not the problem. It is the lack of direction.

06/09/2023

“Courage is not the absence of fear. It is control of fear, mastery of fear” - Mark Twain

29/06/2023

13/05/2023

To all the mothers out there, have a wonderful mother's day! ❤

22/04/2023

Is the dollar collapsing? Against what: assets, other currencies, as a global currency?

Against assets? Well all fiat currencies do..as by design it is what it does.

Relative to other currencies? Maybe not, because when there's global economic uncertainties, history generally, would remind us that dollar rose up as the strongest, because it is considered as the safe haven fiat currency when everything else is failing. Remember what happend last year, DXY rallied and reached it's 30-year high at 115 (if my memory serves me right) despite the rising inflation in the US (dollar dwindling against assets but rising relative to other currencies).

As the global currency reserve? The dollar hegemony for many years now have been challenged. The story about Cx Yuan overtaking USD as the global reserve has been around since 2009/2010. No countries even maintain their books in a yuan currency. This is something that won't easily happen, not today, not in a close distant. The Eurodollar is the biggest capital market. If all countries would default in their dollar-denominated debts, many of their assets would also dry up, and their economy would suffer heavily. This is just one of the other strong reasons why de-dollarization may not happen soon. The monetary system that it is now, was designed in a way that would make it difficult to just change it overnight. The US market is one of the most sought after when it comes to commerce/world trade, if countries suddenly stopped using the dollar currency, it would also mean cutting business ties with the US, as the only way to do it is by USD. Also, will the US let de-dollarization so easily? This is not to say that it will not happen, as it happened in the past (the Dutch, and the British empires, and many others before that: their currencies used to be the global reserves before the USD) but again, not very soon.

Now, what is the Dollar Smile Theory?

"According to the 'dollar smile' theory developed by currency expert and now hedge fund manager Stephen Jen 20 years ago, the dollar typically appreciates both in times of great financial stress and great investor ebullience - but it sags in between." Reuters https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/dollars-smile-looks-little-lopsided-2023-03-24/ #:~:text=According%20to%20the%20'dollar%20smile,but%20it%20sags%20in%20between.

08/04/2023

"If you control the food, you control a nation. If you control the energy, you control a region. If you control the money, you control the world." - Henry Kissinger

05/04/2023

RANKED: The U.S. banks with the most uninsured deposits.

Source: https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-u-s-banks-with-the-most-uninsured-deposits/

05/04/2023

Global de-dollarization slowly picking up. USDs around the world will soon find its way back to its home base which could cause its further devaluation. Will the US dollar lose its world reserve currency status soon? Will see...

“India-Malaysia trade settlements in Indian Rupee (INR) become effective from today. Exporters and importers from Malaysia and India can now carry out their transactions in Indian Rupees(INR). Press release 👇 ”

22/03/2023

68% of First Republic bank's deposits are uninsured. Only under 40% of their deposits are from the retail market and the rest are (about 2/3) are corporate deposits which places them at a higher risk.

As previously announced, First Republic (the “Bank”) obtained additional liquidity through additional borrowing capacity. It has since drawn on this borrowing
capacity following recent industry events.

As of March 15, 2023, the Bank had a cash position of approximately $34 billion, not including the $30 billion of uninsured deposits
from Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon, PNC
Bank, State Street, Truist, and U.S. Bank with an initial term of 120 days at market rates.

From March 10 to March 15, 2023, Bank borrowings from the Federal Reserve varied from $20 billion to $109 billion at an overnight
rate of 4.75%.
Since close of business on March 9, 2023, the Bank has also increased short-term borrowings from the Federal Home Loan Bank
by $10 billion at a rate of 5.09%.

Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/regional-insured-deposits-7255798
https://news.firstrepublic.com/news-releases/news-release-details/reinforcing-confidence-first-republic-bank

18/03/2023

SVB, and Signature banks are the "safest" banks in America! Where else can you find banks that has the full backing of the US government? About 90% of their deposits were uninsured...and by the way the president assured the US taxpayers: "No losses will be — and this is an important for point — no losses will be borne by the taxpayers"....very convincing.😱

Let's see if the Fed will still raise rate next week. What's your bet? 25bsp? Halt? Cut? Pick your bet😜

Gold price has reached $2000/ounce!

17/03/2023

Credit Suisse is part of the Global Systemically Important Banks or GSIBs. So just imagine the tremendous impact it could create to the global financial system should it totally collapses. In 2022, the bank reported a loss of nearly $8B.

"A G-SIB is a bank whose failure could pose a threat to the international financial system. A bank designated as a G-SIB must hold more risk-based capital to enhance its resilience and is subject to additional regulatory oversight.

The OFR Bank Systemic Risk Monitor (BSRM) is a collection of key measures for monitoring systemic risks posed by the largest banks. These include systemic importance scores for international and U.S. banks, the OFR’s Contagion Index, and other common measures of systemic risk.

Under the Basel methodology, five risk categories determine the G-SIB score:

Size: The failure of a larger bank is harder to resolve and can have a broader impact on the financial system. Size is measured using a single indicator of a bank's total exposures, which includes derivatives, securities financing transactions, and off-balance-sheet exposures.

Interconnectedness: A bank with a more extensive network of contractual obligations within the financial system can accelerate the spread of a financial shock. Interconnectedness is measured by three indicators: intra-financial system assets, intra-financial system liabilities, and securities issued by the bank.

Substitutability: A bank is more systemically important if it provides a service that would be difficult to replace if the bank were no longer able to provide that service. Three indicators go into the measure of substitutability: payments activity, assets under custody, and underwriting activity. The substitutability measure is capped at 500 in calculating the overall score.

Complexity: A bank with more complex operations can be more difficult to resolve, and its failure could have a broader impact within the financial system. Complexity is measured by three indicators: a bank's notional amount of over-the-counter derivatives, its trading and available-for-sale securities, and its illiquid and hard-to-value assets.

Cross-Jurisdictional Activity: The failure of a bank with international operations requires cross-border coordination to resolve and can have a far-reaching impact. Cross-jurisdictional risk is measured through two indicators: the bank’s cross-jurisdictional claims and its cross-jurisdictional liabilities".

In 2022, Credit Suisse scored 88 basis points in terms of size, 153.35 in interconnectedness, 228.83 in substitutability, 179.86 in complexity, and 191.22 cross-jurisdictional activity.

Source:
https://www.financialresearch.gov/bank-systemic-risk-monitor/

Have a glimpse of the story behind Credit Suisse here
⬇️⬇️
Credit Suisse: What next for the crises-hit bank?, FT Film, Jul 14, 2022: https://youtu.be/PyuUc74Qdzs

16/03/2023

With all the noise in the international banking sector and the monetary system, the price of gold (and silver) is now rising. Physical gold is a real commodity, something you can touch and hold, with real value, and has no counter party risk. Money is a "fiat" currency. We believe that the currency has value because the government made us to believe so...it's by "decree" that we believe that it has value in it. By definition, money is a store of value, but do currencies hold its value, if so, why is there inflation, why is it losing its value over time? The dollar alone has lost 99% of its value already! The more that the goverment and banks (yes banks do print money) print money (the truest definition of inflation by the way, is the expansion of money supply. The more money there are in circulation chasing commodities and services, the higher inflation gets), the more that currencies lose its value! Inflation is the insidious and unfair tax that robs us. Yeah, you don't get tax rate hike, but hey, your "money" is depleting in value because the gov't keeps printing. Gold and silver are true store of value. Think about that. ❤

12/03/2023

Something to read

February 15, 2023 Latest Article: How the Fed “Went Broke” (an analysis of the Fed’s switchover from operating at a profit to operating at a loss) This newsletter examines the topic of inflation, to take a data-driven look at the causes and fixes for inflation over the past century. Inflation ...