By Chris Wedding In his latest article, Dr. Wedding, one of Carofin's investment bankers, speaks to a principle that I have espoused throughout my career. Diversity in the workplace (and our country) is not only the right thing to do... it's the most intelligent way to run any business. As you'll see below, the world's leading consulting firms are of the same mind. - Bruce Roberts - CEO,...
by Chris Wedding If you only considered headlines like the ones below, you would think that COVID has obliterated the solar, wind, and related clean energy industries. Covid-19 Lockdown Could Kill 500k Cleantech Jobs (Forbes) Wind Energy Group Says $43 Billion at Risk from COVID-19 (Power) Tesla to Reduce On-Site Staff at Nevada Gigafactory by 75% (TechCrunch) Electric Vehicle Sales Set to...
In 72 hours, the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program exceeded the $350B capacity. In contrast, $120 Billion in loan capacity is still available after a month into Round 2. Congress interpreted this to mean that the loan forgiveness terms were too strict and passed legislation last night to add flexibility. Here we relay important changes in loan terms, tips on navigating forgiveness,...
While I now live in North Carolina, I’m originally from Kentucky where our state motto is “United we stand, divided we fall.” An essential attitude for these times … When I hear doubts about the U.S. and its ability to get through this crisis, I’m not buying it. We still, collectively, have enormous financial reserves and other resources. This isn’t the 1930’s, when we were a relatively poor...
At this point, we’re probably each wondering what the world will look like when this crisis ends and whether we’ll get back to the “good ole days” of last month. I hope not. I hope not because, before COVID-19, the U.S. already had other major crises – we were just kicking those cans down the road. So, now is a good time to ponder our future as each of us sit in our “Shelter-in-Place." We...
The U.S. Treasury, the SBA and the Federal Reserve are moving quickly - trying to shore-up our economy. Nevertheless, private investment will soon be critical to our ability to respond to the “long tail” of COVID-19. HNW individuals, family offices and private investment funds will soon become the investors (lenders and equity holders) of last resort to businesses as we adapt – we each must...
As an investment banker for 36 years now, I’ve observed a significant number of world events during my career. I’ve always found myself wondering each time whether it’s signaled some new “world-order.” Usually, they didn’t, e.g., the 1987 stock market crash and various Recessions. But sometimes they did, such as the Berlin wall coming down, the rise of the internet in the 1990s and 9/11. Here...
This CARES Act update sends two messages: If you have applied for any of the SBA stimulus programs, you aren’t crazy, and you aren’t alone. Odds are that you haven’t received the $10,000 grant that was promised in 3 business days -- and your application to the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) has not been accepted, much less processed. So, what happened? First, banks did not initially accept...
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