The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has dominated the news in the last few days because it’s the second-biggest bank failure in US history and the worst since the financial crisis of 2008. As we reported, the bank’s CEO, Greg Becker, got ahead of the storm, selling $3.6 million in the company’s stock before it failed, so it looks like he’ll be okay despite many other folks not being able to get their money. Turns out, other top executives did too: As the scrutiny intensifies, and we try to determine exactly what happened, it not surprisingly turns out that the institution was heavily involved in green energy and woke ideals. Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus zeroed in during an appearance on Fox News with host Neil Cavuto:
First, Marcus levels Joe Biden and his crazed economic policies, then at the 58-second mark he talks about SVB’s woes. Did the bank underwrite solid goods like hammers, wood, and construction materials—things that the Home Depot founder himself found immense success with? No—you probably won’t be stunned to find out their interests took a totally different path:
Apologies if I sound jaded, but the $570 million in wasted taxpayer money on the Obama-sponsored Solyndra fiasco still weighs on my mind—a costly boondoggle that even the Washington Post had to admit was “infused with politics at every level.” Marcus is critical of the bank’s focus:
I took a deep dive into woke investing in my conversation with the clean-living but anti-ESG investor and founder of the “orphan index” ($ORFN) Mark Neuman; it’s worth a read. ESG sounds great, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Although you can’t tie all of SVB’s woes to clean energy—many experts are pointing to its untimely reliance on bonds—one can’t help but notice a pattern here. Massive investments, either financed directly by the government or made possible by fed policy, are routinely poured into the sector, only to be lost in spectacular fashion. While the idea of “green” energy sounds like a great idea—often it turns out to be just one giant grift. Related:–> |
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