🍋 The New SVB

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Good Morning! A Bloomberg survey found that half of Americans are now taking on side-gigs to make ends meet. Crypto exchange Binance got sued by US regulators for ‘willful evasion’ yesterday, causing Bitcoin to fall 3% on the news.

And more trouble in the finance/crypto world as the chairman of Saudi National Bank, Credit Suisse's largest shareholder, has resigned after his comments nearly pushed the Swiss bank to insolvency.

Twitter's source code (its trade secrets) have been leaked, Lyft's co-founders are stepping down, and the power dynamic in the housing market is shifting to favor sellers.

Financebuzz’s team of credit card experts has put together a comprehensive list of the top cards that offer extended periods of 0% interest rates. Check out the list here.

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1. Story of the Day: The New SVB

It's official: Silicon Valley Bank has been acquired by First Citizens Bank in a move that's shaking up the banking industry.

It’s a power move by First Citizens. They’re a small family-run bank based in North Carolina, and the billionaire dynasty is drawing comparisons to the Murdochs.

First Citizens may have been flying under the radar, but it’s looking like they finessed this acquisition. Overnight, the small Southern family-run bank becomes one of the largest lenders to the venture capital and private equity industries.

First Citizens Bank made its name snatching up struggling banks - taking advantage of M&A opportunities on a bargain. Over the past decade, First Citizens bought Temecula Valley Bank and Sun American Bank on the cheap.

But this time they're taking on a whole new level of challenge with their acquisition of SVB. First Citizens bought $72 billion of SVB’s loans at a discount of $16.5 billion.

First Citizens is growing fast, and with this deal is now a top 25 commercial bank in the United States. Three years ago the bank only had $42 billion in deposits, but it will have well over $200 billion after snatching up SVB.

Takeaway: The deal might not have closed without the help of regulators, which let First Citizens buy SVB at a massive discount. First Citizens doesn’t have to buy SVB’s unprofitable loans, either. We’ll see if the deal pays off, but First Citizens has officially announced itself with this acquisition.

2. Markets Rundown

S&P 500 closed higher after SVB deal lifted bank stocks; crypto closed lower after Binance lawsuit.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) First Citizens ($FIZN) +54% after the bank agreed to buy SVB.

• (+) Roku ($ROKU) +5% after Susquehanna upgraded the media platform to ‘positive’.

• (–) Coinbase ($COIN) -8% after US regulators sued Binance.

Private Dealmaking

• Kream, a luxury goods reselling platform, raised $168 million

• Monarch Collective, a women’s sports investment firm, raised $100 million

• Overhaul, a supply chain management platform, raised $73 million

• Una Brands, an e-commerce aggregator, raised $30 million

• Banyan Infrastructure, a fintech payment platform, raised $25 million 

• Candidly, a student debt and savings platform, raised $20.5 million

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3. Top Reads

• It’s easier to underestimate your expenses and overspend right now (WSJ)

• Why the US had to sweeten terms to get the SVB deal done (CNBC)

• Disney to begin laying off 7,000 employees (Fox)

• Banking crisis raises concerns about hidden leverage in the system (YF)

• Bond issuance slows to crawl after bank failures (Axios)

• More millennials are changing travel as we know it (CNBC)

• Money is moving out of the banking system (Axios)

• What SVB did right (HBR)

• Fed’s Barr calls SVB a textbook case of mismanagement (CNBC)

4. Shortform Book of the Day: Human Compatible

Read More Books, Faster - Shortform offers super-detailed guides to 1000+ books in categories like finance, careers, self-improvement, and more. Their comprehensive coverage and deep insights will give you the world's greatest ideas without the fluff.

Start your free trial and get 3 months off the annual subscription!

In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable.

In this groundbreaking book, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.

He describes the near-term benefits we can expect, from intelligent personal assistants to vastly accelerated scientific research, and outlines the AI breakthroughs that still have to happen before we reach superhuman AI.

He also spells out the ways humans are already finding to misuse AI, from lethal autonomous weapons to viral sabotage.

If the predicted breakthroughs occur and superhuman AI emerges, we will have created entities far more powerful than ourselves.

How can we ensure they never, ever, have power over us? Russell suggests that we can rebuild AI on a new foundation, according to which machines are designed to be inherently uncertain about the human preferences they are required to satisfy.

“With AI tutors, the potential of each child, no matter how poor, can be realized. The cost per child would be negligible, and that child would live a far richer and more productive life.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• 11 tips to take your ChatGPT prompts to the next level

• Best cities for pay and work-life balance

• How adding a scary hour to your morning increases productivity and focus

• What to do when you don’t get along with your boss

• Why Warren Buffett once said Jay-Z is the guy to learn from

6. Daily Visual: Deposits at Small US Banks

_{Source: Axios}

7. Daily Acumen

Oh, the joys of living in a world where everyone has an opinion, and they're not afraid to share it!

It's like we're all on this rollercoaster ride of opinions, but instead of enjoying the thrills, we're busy shutting down everyone who doesn't share our views.

But here's a wild idea: "Confident Pluralism." It's like hosting a fabulous dinner party where all the guests have different tastes, but we still manage to find common ground and have a great time.

And don't even get me started on social media. It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet of news, opinions, and angry rants.

To make things better, let's try something: Pause, reflect, and diversify our news feeds. It's like trying new flavors at an ice cream shop – you never know what you'll like until you give it a chance.

So, let's make an effort to be more tolerant, humble, and patient. It's like adding a pinch of seasoning to our conversations.

By reaching out to others with different perspectives, we can learn a thing or two and become the best version of ourselves. After all, variety is the spice of life!

8. Memes of the Day

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