Philippe Van Loock

MERGER SUNDAY: QXO TO ACQUIRE TOPBUILD FOR $17 BILLION

📽️Donald Trump wants you to know he's targeting Venezuela because of illegal drugs. But what if this were really about something else altogether...? Dig into the murky world of crude oil refining and you find another, even more intriguing explanation... Full primer 👇

i’m genuinely in love with this ad a french one? for a SUPERMARKET?? like woah

$JPM CEO Jamie Dimon just said that Europe is Weak and has "Real Problems". - High Debt - Weak Military - No Innovation - No Investment - Insane Bureaucracy - Low Competitiveness - Expensive Social Programs There are some pockets of good companies, but overall, I am not bullish on European stocks. Draghi said basically the same 2 years ago, and Germany replied with "Nein". We need the biggest reforms ever, but I don't see the EU doing anything of the sort. Just last month, they passed some BS laws banning Vegan products from using phrases like meat, chicken, beef, and burger. Nobody cares about this nonsense, only perfumed bureaucrats in Brussels wanna waste time with this. They have been pontificating about the capital markets union for 20 years, and nothing has been done so far.

Prayers to my friends in Cebu. Stay safe!

@RnaudBertrand Nice. You went to see the Statue of Liberty too?

Hello from our family to yours!

As a big river swimming fan, and being in Paris today, I had to try it: swimming in the Seine river, which is now possible since the 5th of July. Honestly pretty cool experience, in all meanings of the word since the water is a refreshing 23C. They have 3 sites and we tried the "Grenelle" one, very close to the Eiffel tower. The water quality is frankly not bad, I saw many fishes in the water, and it feels quite clean, I even put my head under the water as you can see on the video.

@FirasMaksad One of the most surreal images I already saw.

NOW Our view from a #Lebanon wedding. Those aren’t fireworks from #Iran to #Israel 🚀🚀

Well done. Took his second chance. What a talent.

Another exceptionally masterful explanation by former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of what's at stake with what Israel is currently doing. He strongly criticizes the lack of vision among Western leaders: "They do not have any strategic vision, and in particular, they still have not understood that the new world order would be based on principles [...] European diplomacy and American diplomacy have checked out. They are absent!" He says this is because "they are unable to extract themselves from their geopolitical situation as Westerners to create a path towards the rest of the world, especially towards the global south, towards the great powers today that are rising - those of the BRICS and others." He argues that Israel's current path is self-defeating as the use of force, especially when not sanctioned by international law, can only leads to more violence and instability: "I'm afraid that Israel is condemned to lead war after war, each time with more use of force [...] They can maintain security on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, but on Thursday and Friday insecurity will be reborn. Insecurity will be permanent. And that's why the Israelis invented this saying which summarizes everything: they have to 'mow the lawn'. Yes, because violence grows back, and it always grows back more vigorous and always stronger. [...] The only way out would be the creation of a Palestinian state, more justice." He draws a parallel between the current global situation and the lead-up to World War II, reminding us: "Let's not forget that the League of Nations began to die in earnest in 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia. There was this great speech of the Negus, the Emperor Haile Selassie, who addressed the League of Nations to request its assistance. And then after, there was the Spanish war and many other dramas and crises that led to World War II." He believes the only solution to all this is the embracing of a new world order with, as "a starting point", respect for international law which can only come with respect for others - in particular the nations of the global South - and the repair of the "injustice" and the "wound" that is the denial of a state to Palestinians. On this he says that Macron missed a unique opportunity at the UN a few days ago, instead of giving a speech reminiscent of "the Queen of England speaking at the UN", he should have "announced that France recognizes a Palestinian state": "There was no moment that could have been more useful than today, in a moment when all this region hesitates between a situation of localized war and a total regional war. It was the time to affirm a political vision.... Because what is at stake is the absence of the western world in this demand for justice. It is the absence of voice from the West. Neither Biden nor President Macron nor Olaf Scholz nor does anyone in Europe take the lead. We forget these misfortunes of the world, and well, unfortunately, these misfortunes of the world will take revenge, and we are in this matter, believe it, all concerned. All the debts will be paid. It's unfortunately history, it's the great history that we all ought to know and never forget."

Het begint allemaal met het het woordgebruik: “Fietssnelweg”. tijd.be/dossiers/de-pr…

Chinese-US study says their powerful technology using shape memory alloy tubes could help phase out HFC use for commercial refrigeration #Echobox=1685787319" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">scmp.com/news/china/sci…

The gov’t has about 48 hours to fix a-soon-to-be-irreversible mistake. By allowing @SVB_Financial to fail without protecting all depositors, the world has woken up to what an uninsured deposit is — an unsecured illiquid claim on a failed bank. Absent @jpmorgan @citi or @BankofAmerica acquiring SVB before the open on Monday, a prospect I believe to be unlikely, or the gov’t guaranteeing all of SVB’s deposits, the giant sucking sound you will hear will be the withdrawal of substantially all uninsured deposits from all but the ‘systemically important banks’ (SIBs). These funds will be transferred to the SIBs, US Treasury (UST) money market funds and short-term UST. There is already pressure to transfer cash to short-term UST and UST money market accounts due to the substantially higher yields available on risk-free UST vs. bank deposits. These withdrawals will drain liquidity from community, regional and other banks and begin the destruction of these important institutions. The increased demand for short-term UST will drive short rates lower complicating the @federalreserve’s efforts to raise rates to slow the economy. Already thousands of the fastest growing, most innovative venture-backed companies in the U.S. will begin to fail to make payroll next week. Had the gov’t stepped in on Friday to guarantee SVB’s deposits (in exchange for penny warrants which would have wiped out the substantial majority of its equity value) this could have been avoided and SVB’s 40-year franchise value could have been preserved and transferred to a new owner in exchange for an equity injection. We would have been open to participating. This approach would have minimized the risk of any gov’t losses, and created the potential for substantial profits from the rescue. Instead, I think it is now unlikely any buyer will emerge to acquire the failed bank. The gov’t’s approach has guaranteed that more risk will be concentrated in the SIBs at the expense of other banks, which itself creates more systemic risk. For those who make the case that depositors be damned as it would create moral hazard to save them, consider the feasibility of a world where each depositor must do their own credit assessment of the bank they choose to bank with. I am a pretty sophisticated financial analyst and I find most banks to be a black box despite the 1,000s of pages of @SECGov filings available on each bank. SVB’s senior management made a basic mistake. They invested short-term deposits in longer-term, fixed-rate assets. Thereafter short-term rates went up and a bank run ensued. Senior management screwed up and they should lose their jobs. The @FDICgov and OCC also screwed up. It is their job to monitor our banking system for risk and SVB should have been high on their watch list with more than $200B of assets and $170B of deposits from business borrowers in effectively the same industry. The FDIC’s and OCC’s failure to do their jobs should not be allowed to cause the destruction of 1,000s of our nation’s highest potential and highest growth businesses (and the resulting losses of 10s of 1,000s of jobs for some of our most talented younger generation) while also permanently impairing our community and regional banks’ access to low-cost deposits. This administration is particularly opposed to concentrations of power. Ironically, its approach to SVB’s failure guarantees duopolistic banking risk concentration in a handful of SIBs. My back-of-the envelope review of SVB’s balance sheet suggests that even in a liquidation, depositors should eventually get back about 98% of their deposits, but eventually is too long when you have payroll to meet next week. So even without assigning any franchise value to SVB, the cost of a gov’t guarantee of SVB deposits would be minimal. On the other hand, the unintended consequences of the gov’t’s failure to guarantee SVB deposits are vast and profound and need to be considered and addressed before Monday. Otherwise, watch out below.

@SCMPNews Not for tomorrow, but will definitely attend one time. There seems to be a nice music festival there also around the same time.

Visitors returned to China’s ‘ice city’ to enjoy winter life after the country eased Covid restrictions.

Vandaag zijn we met het klimaatteam van @Econopolis (@Pvanloock, @GinoDelaere en @slegers_pieter) te gast bij @GoldmanSachs op hun #Carbonomics event. Klimaatoplossingen worden een van dé beleggingsthema's van de komende decennia.

…. on the policy of zero covid. It’s politically embarrassing and wounding. Undermines a central plank of the CCP’s social control dna too. We can only watch in awe at people’s courage

Gisteren nam het klimaatteam van Econopolis deel aan de Hydrogen Opportunities Tour in Antwerpen. Groene waterstof is een energiedrager die een steeds belangrijkere rol zal spelen in de energietransitie.

Vanaf deze week hoort u onze radiospot opnieuw op Radio 1. Benieuwd naar onze aanpak? Contacteer ons vrijblijvend. Ook voor een second opinion. ▻ info@econopolis.be

#Klimaataandelen zijn vandaag nog maar weinig bekend onder het grote publiek. Toch genieten ze van talloze gunstige rugwinden. Ontdek in onderstaande video waarom: youtube.com/watch?v=pxo37g…

Sinds 1 april jongstleden bij Econopolis. En of we goed begonnen zijn! De sfeer is gut 😀 Thanks team. @Econopolis @BernardThant @GinoDelaere @slegers_pieter #climate #klimaat

@beursanalist twitter.com/NBDPress/statu…

For those who have been waiting for Nickel to trade again. LME says trading will resume tomorrow.