You know things are bad when an earnings call lasts just 12 minutes, the CFO wasnt present, and the CEO wont take questions. That was the case Monday when First Republic Bank reported its first-quarter earnings revealing the massive loss of customer deposits.

The SVB bank run caused the problem that First Republic is in now, but the structure of their balance sheet and their business model put them in this vulnerable position, Tim Coffey, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, tells me. 

First Republic reported that customer deposits fell 41% to $104.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a worse-than-expected drop. This follows the $30 billion boost in deposits about six weeks ago, prompted by the Fed and provided by some of the biggest banks in the U.S. including, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., in attempts to stabilize the San Francisco, Calif., lenders finances. Like SVB, the vast majority of First Republics deposits were uninsured.

What First Republic did right that Wall Street loved (for a while) 

First Republic (NYSE: FRC) was popular with customers. For example, during an earnings call on Jan. 13, the company said its 2022 Net Promoter Score (a metric reflecting customer satisfaction) was the highest ever. FRC was for some time considered a strong-performing stock. The bank went public toward the end of 2010, and shares were priced at about $27. The all-time high closing price for FRC was $221.91 on Nov. 16, 2021.

Before the regional bank upheaval began in March 2023, FRC closed at $123.01 on Feb. 28. The stock price fell to $13.99 on March 31, reached a 52-week low of $4.76 on April 26, and closed at $6.19 on April 27.

Mike Roffler was appointed CFO in 2014, and president in 2021. His work as finance chief was recognized multiple times. For example, in June 2021, he ranked in the top 28% of BuySellSignals Large MCap performers for the past year.

Roffler became acting CEO at First Republic in January 2022, officially taking on the role in March of that year. When he was promoted, Olga Tsokova, the chief accounting officer, served as acting CFO from January 2022 until Neal Holland was hired as CFO in November, previously Union Bank CFO and Deputy CFO of MUFG Americas Holdings. Tsokova was appointed deputy CFO along with the CAO role.

Mike fully embodies our culture, has a deep knowledge of our business model, and is highly regarded by our stakeholders, Jim Herbert, who founded the bank in 1985, served as its CEO, and is now executive chairman, said in the companys announcement in 2022.

First Republics specialty is private banking and wealth management, and reports that no sector represents more than 9% of total business deposits. The company has a business model of adding high net-worth clients, Coffey says.

You lead with the mortgage product, then you do your best to attract their low-cost deposits and their wealth management business, he explains. Then once you have the personal stuff, you go after nonprofit accounts, and more, he says. Thats been ingrained in the business for decades, and Mike Roffler was in lockstep with that culture and business model, Coffey says.

What did First Republic do wrong?

The strategy of offering wealthy borrowers substantial mortgages, usually at low rates, that for a time worked so well, was exquisitely wrong for what appeared in late 2022.

They put themselves in a risky position by aggressively growing assets in a zero-interest rate environment, Coffey explains. Say theyre offering a 3% mortgage, once the Fed Funds rates get to 5% the value of the loans that you aggressively added fall in value, he says. They had that brewing already. Between year-end 2019 to year-end 2021, gross loan balances increased $44.1 billion, or 49%.

The bank ended last year with almost $27 billion in markdowns on loans and several unrealized losses on Treasuries and other long-dated bonds on the balance sheet. 

We are working to restructure our balance sheet and reduce our expenses and short-term borrowings, Holland said in a statement that was included in the earnings report. Only Roffler and Mike Ioanilli, VP and director of investor relations, were on Mondays earnings call. There was no Q&A session with investors.

Despite the uncertainty of the past two months and while average account sizes have decreased, we have retained over 97% of client relationships that banked with us at the start of the first quarter, Roffler said on the call. Investors werent persuaded: The banks stock price dropped 49% on Tuesday, 30% on Wednesday. 

The Fed hasnt yet stepped in to take over First Republic, nor have the big banks stepped up again to provide a boost. First Republic was looking to potentially sell $50 billion to $100 billion of assets to big banks, Bloomberg reported. 

I asked Coffey what message the short earnings call provided. I havent seen a bank do that since the great financial crisis, he says. It tells investors that theres a serious situation going on at First Republic that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

Have a good weekend. See you on Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Big deal

A new analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts that 13.4% of the S&P 500 (67 companies) will increase their regular dividends at their next announcements. The consumer staples sector is predicted to post a higher share of companies with expected dividend hikes than any other sector in the index (34%). In second place, 20.7% of the materials sector S&P 500 constituents are predicted to announce dividend increases, followed by the financials sector (19.4%), according to the report. During the pandemic, S&P 500 companies took advantage of near-zero interest rates to keep financing costs manageable, Ryan Boyd, Market Intelligence head of business development for the Americas, said in a statement. Despite a slowing economy and higher borrowing costs, dividends for the group should remain resilient, according to Boyd.

Courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence

Going deeper

Here are a few Fortune weekend reads:

"Charlie Javice, who sold her startup Frank for $175 million and is accused of fraud, is running out of money," by Luisa Beltran

"I mean, how dumb was I? Legendary investor Peter Lynch says these are the top mistakes hes madeand what he looks for in a company," by Will Daniel

"How one employers response to a candidates rejection was such a company culture green flag that it convinced the job seeker to change her mind," by Orianna Rosa Royle

"Logging longer workouts boosts longevity. Experts explain how much to aim for, and tips to do it safely," by Kells McPhillips

Leaderboard

Here's a list of some notable moves this week:

Sherry Gao was named CFO at Argosy Capital Group, Inc., a lower middle market private investment firm. Gao joins Argosy from Centre Lane Partners, where she was CFO. Before Centre Lane, she was CFO at MatlinPatterson. At Argosy, Gao succeeds Sarah Roth as CFO. Roth was promoted to CEO in January 2022.

Michael Schwindle was named as CFO at Vera Bradley, effective May 8. John Enwright, current CFO, will be stepping down from his position as a result of the reorganization. Schwindle is a retail industry veteran. Since early 2020, he has served as CFO for accessory and jewelry retailer Claires. Previously, he held CFO roles at specialty retailers Fleet Farm, Payless ShoeSource, Harry & David, and Musicians Friend, as well as other key financial roles at Home Depot and Limited Brands. 

Uzi Sasson was named CFO and COO at Meta Materials Inc. (Nasdaq: MMAT), a developer of functional materials and nanocomposites, effective April 20. Sasson replaces current CFO and COO Ken Rice, who is retiring. Before joining Meta Materials, Sasson served as CFO of Katena Computing Technologies, Inc., and EVP and CFO for Eat Just, Inc., a plant-based food technology company. He also served as the CFO and COO of IXYS Corporation before being promoted to president and CEO.

Jeff Farrow was named CFO and chief strategy officer at Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: TARS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, effective immediately. Farrow succeeds Leo Greenstein, who is leaving Tarsus to pursue other professional interests. Most recently, Farrow served as CFO at Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc. 

Kevin Rhodes was named EVP and CFO at Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR), a cloud networking company, effective May 30. Before Extreme, Rhodes was EVP and CFO at Duck Creek Technologies, a global vertical SaaS provider. Before that, he held CFO roles at Finvi, Markforged, and Brightcove.

Teresa Chia was named CFO at Vertafore, an insurance technology company. Before joining Vertafore, Chia was a senior partner and managing director at White Mountains Insurance Group. Before that, Chia was a private equity investor at Permira Advisors, focusing on investments in the global technology and consumer verticals.

Robert Fraass was named CFO at Servotronics, Inc. (NYSE American: SVT), a designer and manufacturer of servo-control components, effective May 1, He replaces Lisa F. Bencel, who will be leaving the company later in May to pursue other interests. Fraass most recently comes from Stark Technologies Group, Inc. where he served as SVP of finance, corporate controller, and treasurer. He also held executive finance roles at PostProcess Technologies, Ivoclar Vivadent, Integer, and Integrys Energy Services.

Overheard

"Our data shows that flexibility at work is now non-negotiable, and often as important as pay, with many willing to leave their job if it isnt offered, even in the context of declining job security and rising cost of living."

Sander van 't Noordende, CEO of Randstad, wrote in a Fortune opinion piece discussing the value of extending flexibility to all workers. 

The voices sound like well-known personalities, the music features trendy dance beats and hip-hop syncopations, and the jokes and laughter are contagious. But listeners of an offbeat Swiss public radio station repeatedly got the message on Thursday: Todays programming is brought to you by Artificial Intelligence.

Three months in the making, the French-language station Couleur 3 (Color 3) is touting a one-day experiment using cloned voices of five real, human presenters in what managers claim is a world first and never-aired-before music composed almost entirely by computers, not people. From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., the station said, AI controlled its airwaves. Every 20 minutes, listeners got a reminder.

With an eerie, Sci-Fi movie-like track whirring in the background, a soothing, raspy female voice said: AI is taking your favorite radio by storm.

For 13 hours, our digital alter egos have taken the reins, broadcasting their voices and their messages across the airwaves, without mercy or respite, the voice said, at times almost taunting listeners. The boundaries between human and machine have been blurred, and its up to you to unravel whats real and whats fake.

Our voice clones and AI are here to unsettle, surprise and shake you. And for that matter, this text was also written by a robot.

The explosive emergence of ChatGPT last autumn and other Generative AI tools have caused a stir and often fear, confusion, fascination, laughter, or worry about the long-term economic, cultural, social and even political consequences. Some musicians have complained that AI has ripped off their styles.

In the face of such recalcitrance, the Swiss station, which falls under the umbrella of public broadcaster Radio Television Switzerland, notes the concerns about AI and embraces and seeks to de-mystify it.

Antoine Multone, the stations chief, said Couleur 3 could get away with the experiment because its already known as provocative.

While some might fear the project could be a first step toward the obsolescence of people on the air and firings of personnel too or could weaken journalism, he defended the project as a lesson on how to live with AI.

I think if we become ostriches we put our heads in the sand and say, Mon Dieu, theres a new technology! Were all going to die! then yeah, were going to die because it (AI) is coming, whether we like it or not, Multone said by phone. We want to master the technology so we can then put limits on it.

Some have gone even further, like Seven Hills, Ohio-based media company Futuri, which has rolled out RadioGPT that relies on AI.

At Couleur 3, the voices of the presenters were cloned with the help of software company Respeecher, which has worked with Hollywood studios and whose website says its team is mostly based in Ukraine.

Station managers say it took three months to train the AI to understand the needs of the station and adopt its quirky, offbeat vibe. The tracks aired during the day were at least partially composed by AI and some were entirely, and thats also a first, Multone said. AI was behind the voices that sang songs broadcast in the morning, and it played DJ in the afternoon selecting copyrighted music.

To avoid any possible confusion with todays real news, the synthetic voices indistinguishable from a real persons served up top-of-the-hour news flashes that were way too futuristic to be believable: A temporary ban on spaceship flights over Geneva airspace due to noise complaints; the opening of the first underwater restaurant in Lake Zurich; extraterrestrial tourists who mistook swans on Swiss lake for inflatable toys.

The AI had been instructed to come up with news that might be read in the year 2070.

Multone acknowledged a lot of discussion among staffers about whether to go through with it, and I was ready to pull the plug on the project if I had seen that my team wasnt 100% motivated to try it.

Hundreds of messages poured into the station in the morning shortly after the programming began, Swiss public radio said in a statement. One complained of boring jokes. Another listener, stupefied, admitted to being stumped. One critic called the project a waste of time for a station that gets public funding.

The main feedback we get, in 90% of the messages, is: Its cool, but theres a human element missing. You can sense these are robots, and there are fewer surprises, less personality,' Multone said, noting an on-air discussion of the experiment was planned Friday by real people.

Many messages just said: Give us back our humans! he said. I think thats great.

Republicans see it as a victory for taxpayers. Democrats say it would hurt the economy and block college students who need financial aid.

The GOP bill would cancel both of Bidens marquee student debt proposals: a one-time cancellation of up to $20,000 for more than 40 million Americans, and an updated loan repayment plan that could slash monthly payments for millions.

It would also lift a pause on federal student loan payments, forcing borrowers into repayment sooner than planned.

On the House floor Wednesday, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said Bidens plan for student debt was an obvious target as the government reins in spending.

With an estimated cost of more than $500 billion, Bidens student debt plan is a backdoor attempt to provide free college on the backs of blue-collar Americans, said Foxx, of North Carolina.

Biden has threatened to veto the legislation, and his student debt cancellation plan is seen as untouchable by some Senate Democrats who may well kill the bill. Some of the strongest champions of cancellation have included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle generally agree that the student loan system is broken, but they have differing approaches to fixing it. The issue has become a lightning rod in recent years amid rising college costs and a national student debt total that now surpasses $1.6 trillion.

For Republicans, the fight offers a fresh opportunity to strike at Bidens student debt policies, which they view as an overreach. Conservative opponents have already gotten his cancellation temporarily halted in court, and its now being reviewed by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

Unlike the GOP lawsuits, however, the new legislation takes aim at the full suite of Bidens student debt plans, including a proposed repayment plan that has mostly avoided the type of scrutiny that mass cancellation has seen.

Bidens payment option would mostly replace four existing income-driven repayment plans with much more generous terms.

It would cap monthly payments at 5% of a borrowers income, for example, down from 10% now. And it would charge nothing for those with yearly incomes of less than $30,000 ($24,000 now). No interest would be charged as long as payments were made on time.

The plan was formally proposed in January but has yet to be finalized. Under the Republican bill, it would be revoked.

Going a step further, the Republican plan would permanently bar the Education Department from issuing any future regulation that raises costs for the federal student aid program. That would amount to a dramatic shift in the way the agency does business.

Administrations from both parties have used their regulatory power to update the loan program without going through Congress. The Trump administration used that authority to erase debt for disabled military veterans in 2019, and Biden used it to overhaul a debt forgiveness program for public servants.

Borrower advocates assail the GOP bill, saying it would worsen the student debt crisis.

Blocking the new repayment plan would make permanent the debt trap for any borrower who does not earn enough money to afford their monthly loan bills, said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

The impact of the bill could go far beyond student debt. The Education Department estimates it would require a 22% budget cut across some of its biggest programs.

The department estimates it would need to cut federal Pell Grants grants to students with significant financial need for 80,000 college students, and the maximum grant amount would be reduced by $1,000 for all other borrowers. It would also bring a $4 billion reduction in federal money for the nations poorest schools, and cut other money for student mental health.

The Pell reduction annihilates the educational dreams of millions of Americans, said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Foxx disputed the departments accounting of reductions, however, saying the bill doesnt mention a single word about Pell Grants.

If Democrats spent half the amount of time working with Republicans as they do fearmongering, we wouldnt be in this situation in the first place, Foxx said in a statement.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona slammed Republicans for staggering recklessness, saying the bill would be taking us backward and undercut efforts to help students recover from the pandemic.

Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House education panel, rejected the bill as a terrible deal for the American people.

I get tired of being lectured by the Republicans when it comes to fiscal responsibility, because we know that every Republican presidential administration since Nixon has left office with a worse deficit situation than they inherited, Scott said on the House floor Wednesday.

When Charles Johnsons wife, Kira, died after bleeding internally for more than 10 hours following a routine C-section in April 2016, he assumed his situation was an anomaly. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

I thought it was a freak occurrence. Here was a woman who was in exceptional health in 2016 in the United States at Cedars-Sinai of all places, he shared at Fortunes Brainstorm Health conference in Marina del Rey, Calif. Wednesday afternoon following a panel about the Black maternal mortality crisis. But the more I started hearing about these horrific birthing experiences and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice, the more I started thinking somethings just not right.

The tragedy inspired Johnson to research the maternal mortality crisis and launch 4Kira4Moms, a nonprofit on a mission to eradicate maternal mortality, a year later. Across the U.S., Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes compared to white women; yet, 84% of maternal deaths in the U.S. are classified as preventable.

I felt like I owed it to Kira and I owed it to my boys [Charles, 8, and Langston, 7] to try to do something, he said. I didnt know what I could do to be impactful. To be clear, there are women, particularly Black women, who have been screaming from mountaintops about this for decades and I have to recognize my privilege as a Black man in this space telling the story and sounding the alarm.

Addressing Black maternal mortality

To help combat the Black maternal mortality rate, Johnson is focused on four pillars in his work with 4Kira4Moms: education, advocacy, legislation and innovation.

Education, for us, looks like empowering the families and mothers with the tools and resources they need to not only survive, but thrive before, during and after childbirth, he said. Survival should not be the benchmark. It should be a fundamental human right in our society for mothers to give birth to healthy children and live to raise their childrenregardless of how you arrived at pregnancy, regardless of your socioeconomic background, your face, classany of those things.

Additionally, Johnson is committed to providing implicit bias training to organizations through 4Kira4Moms, using his wifes actual medical records to develop a curriculum to help medical professionals better understand racial sensitivity.

We found that a lot of the training medical professionals are engaging in are theoretical and were coming with the experiential, he said. Were not telling you what we think, were telling you what we know. Let me talk to you about what happens when you show up and theres a compassion deficitwhen you have the inability to view your patients in the same way you would your mother, your daughter and the people that you love.

The organization also has a Maternal Mortality Response Team, which mobilizes to support families within 48 hours of the death of a birthing parent through childbirth. The program includes a full year of grief counseling and essential items such as diapers, formula, food and any of the practical resources they need to raise that child and adjust to their new reality, explained Johnson.

When it comes to legislation, Johnson has testified in front of Congress to support the Preventing Maternal Death Act of 2018; the Protecting Moms Who Served Act of 2021 and, most recently with the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021, which would extend postpartum eligibility for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) from six months to 24 months among other benefits.

As for innovation, Johnson said he is in the business of doing things that are bold, radical and disruptive. As an organization, he hopes 4Kira4Moms is able to eradicate the maternal mortality crisis within the next five years.

Is that ambitious? Absolutely, he admitted. But the thing about this is we know we can fix this Right now, its my job to stay out here and make people even more uncomfortable and force them to catch up. Because until youve rocked a child to sleep night after night that simply wants his mother to come home, until youve sat on the phone with a father who has lost his wife and now wants to take his own life because he feels that he failed his family, then you wont understand.

Throughout it all, Johnson remains optimistic that the tide is starting to turn and that change is possible.

One of the reasons we fight so hard is because all women and especially Black women deserve joyful anticipation, he said. We have to turn the page toward what is possible. What is possible if Black women have the resources, the support and access to the birthing experience of their choice? Thats why we focus on reclaiming Black birthing joy.

A market without competition is without growth, innovation, or economic moderators. A non-compete clause is a tool that, when enforced, can create stagnation. Not a great way to grow a vibrant economy, Colorado small business owner Tracy duCharme recently testified at a listening session with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan hosted by Small Business Majority. Tracy once used non-competes but later realized that these agreements prevented natural competition, which is valuable to innovation and small business growth.

As a former small business owner, I know firsthand that these agreements are unnecessary to protect proprietary assets. Before starting Small Business Majority, I founded and ran my business for 12 years in California. California is one of three statesthe other two being Oklahoma and North Dakotathat prohibit the enforcement of non-compete agreements. It was exciting to be part of the new and growing interactive communications field and be free to hire whomever I wanted. I still have close ties to many small businesses in California, and their entrepreneurial spirit has never suffered from Californias ban on non-competes. This is one reason why I believe President Joe Biden was right to encourage the FTC to ban non-compete agreements during his second State of the Union addressand why the FTC should enact its proposed rule to ban non-competes.

Most non-compete clauses are antithetical to the free, fair, and open competition essential to a thriving, inclusive, and equitable economy. Not only do non-compete clauses hinder workers ability to maximize their value in our economy, but they are also a significant impediment to entrepreneurship, particularly for people in our most under-resourced communities.

I am not alone in calling for a ban on most non-compete agreements. Small Business Majoritys nationwide recent survey of more than 300 small businesses found that nearly six in 10 small businesses support the FTCs proposed ban. Almost half of the respondents had been subjected to a non-compete agreement that prevented them from starting or expanding their businessand more than a third had been prevented from hiring an employee due to a non-compete agreement.

Entrepreneurs in our small business network have shared that from their personal experiences, they see non-competes only benefiting large companies with the resources to hamstring their competition. Michigan small business owner and Small Business Majority National Council member Leo Carr noted that he could start and grow his agency because he was not restricted by a non-compete clause. He freely pursued work elsewhere and used this opportunity to cultivate strong relationships in his field and build a reputation for having diverse experiences.

Others have shared that while they feel forced to add a non-compete clause to contracts to compete with larger companies for talent, they prefer not to limit their employees. They find it unfair to enforce an agreement that prevents an employee from pursuing other opportunities that may be better suited for their evolving occupational needs.

Getting rid of this restrictive clause is not only good for the small business community, but its also good for our national economy. More than 30 million people are affected by non-compete agreements, significantly limiting hiring and wage negotiation power for people seeking growth and new opportunities.

The ideal American dream is built on anyone being able to attain their own version of success. Entrepreneurship provides a pathway toward success based on the idea that everyone in the business community will have the ability to operate in an open and fair competitive market. However, non-compete agreements contribute to corporate concentration and thus higher prices by limiting new entrants into the economy. Non-compete agreements often favor larger, well-heeled companies with the resources to promote and adjust their goods and services based on the market. With less competition, prices increase, creating an environment unsuitable for innovators, consumers, or small business employees who rely on productivity for job growth.

The FTC comment period on the proposed rule to ban non-competes closed on Apr. 19. Before the comment period ended, more than 400 small businesses and small business organizations urged the FTC to enact this rule. We hope the FTC listens to the true voices of small business owners and removes restrictions that unfairly trap this community in a state of immobility.

 John Arensmeyer is the founder and CEO of Small Business Majority.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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With Twitter mired in confusion over check marks, subscriptions and an everincreasing number of seemingly haphazard decisions by the platforms owner Elon Musk, some users are searching for alternatives. 

Many are looking no further than Bluesky, which has its own origins in Twitter and, to all intents and purposes, acts in a very similar fashion. Its latest devotees include US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, writer-comedian Dril and model Chrissy Teigen. But for now its invite only. The platform on Thursday said it had just experienced its biggest single-day jump in users yet.

Heres everything you need to know about Bluesky and how to get an all-important invite:

What is Bluesky?

On the outside, Bluesky is a platform with similar looks and features to Twitter albeit simpler allowing users to create a profile and post text and images. The real difference is under the hood. Instead of building a social platform like Twitter or Facebook, the Bluesky project is about creating the behind-the-scenes interface to allow any social platform to plug in so users can keep their identity and connections across services.

The idea of a decentralized network is to make it possible for users to shop around for the platform with the best interface or the content moderation choices they prefer, reducing their reliance on any single service provider and giving them more control over how their data is used.

Who owns it?

The Bluesky project was kicked off by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2019, initially funded by the platform as a side-project to develop a decentralized social media standard. Dorsey said upon its launch that his goal was for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. In 2022, under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Jay Graber, Bluesky announced the launch of the Bluesky PBLLC as an independent organization.

Is Elon Musk involved in Bluesky?

In a word, no. The project went independent way before Musk bought Twitter. And while Dorsey played a role in Musks Twitter takeover, the relationship between the two seems to have deteriorated.

Whos using Bluesky right now?

Well, not that many people yet. Graber told Bloomberg on Friday that over 40,000 people have been granted access to the service, which is currently invite only. But the number of people interested is way higher. The Bluesky iPhone app has been downloaded some 360,000 times, according to analytics company Data.ai. In addition, Bluesky recently launched an Android app, which has ranked highly in Google Play download charts in the US, UK and Japan.

Are there any famous faces or big name users?

Among the users flocking to Bluesky are politicians, celebrities and entrepreneurs. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has already become an active member, notching up over 2,400 followers, while model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen shared a post on Twitter on Friday with a link to her new Bluesky account. Also making platform debuts on Thursday were congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and social media star Dril who boasts 1.8 million Twitter followers.

Even though the community is still relatively small and controlled, impersonation is already an issue. Several accounts have been flagged as fake, including a user imitating Myspace co-founder Tom Anderson whose profile now appears with a warning label. Bluesky currently allows users to report accounts for impersonation.

How do I get a Bluesky invite code?

The only way to get on Bluesky right now is with an invite code. And to get an invite code you need to be on the waitlist. You can sign up to get your name on the list on the Bluesky app or website. Signing up, however, wont give you an ETA on when the doors will open to you its a waiting game right now, and something of a lottery. If you are particularly lucky, however, you could score an invite from a developer or a select few active Bluesky users who are willing and able to share codes. 

In an era of unprecedented access to digital payment methods, cash is making a comeback, courtesy of the swelling cost of living. 

A survey commissioned by Credit Karma and conducted by The Harris Poll in March showed 53% of adults in the US and 46% in the UK use cash more now than a year ago. That was 19 and 4 percentage points more, respectively, than respondents who said they dont use it more. Roughly three in five cash users in both countries said using physical money makes them spend less. 

Changing habits after decades of falling cash use speak to the enduring impact of the fastest inflation since the early 1980s. The squeeze is especially acute in the UK, where price gains remain above 10% and the central banks chief economist ignited online furor this week after saying Britons need to accept that theyre worse off. 

As the world is getting back to normal after the pandemic and prices are going up significantly, we see cash as being one of the most enduring ways of managing money, said Courtney Alev, an associate director of product management at Credit Karma. It really transcends generations and financial situations.

To some extent, the reversing preferences are also a reaction to the proliferation of digital ways of paying from Apple Pay to Venmo to touchless credit cards that some consumers say make it too easy to blow through the budget. More than two-thirds of the 3,171 respondents in the Credit Karma survey said such payment methods made them spend more than they intended. 

Younger people are tuning into the cash-stuffing trend embodied by TikTok videos featuring financial hacks like separating your spending cash into different envelopes to use for different expenses. Consumers are also taking to social media to push back against businesses that dont accept cash. 

A lot of the theory on payments has been to remove friction, said Natalie Ceeney, chair of Cash Access UK, which was set up by UK banks and building societies to promote widespread access to cash following legislation to stem its decline. Actually, a lot of people want friction back.

She said that studies point to a large increase in sales when consumer-facing businesses such as sports arenas switch to contactless payments. One of the reasons is people are more likely to just tap and buy things without thinking, Gosh, thats a lot of money.

Emily ODonnell from Lichfield in central England switched to using only cash in November after stumbling across a TikTok video on cash-stuffing. Before that, the 26-year-old had been living paycheck to paycheck. Since then, shes cleared off 7,000 ($8,740) of debt and started saving for a house deposit. She also posts videos on the social-media platform about budgeting.  

The discipline came from creating accountability on TikTok and having budget binders that were very visual, as Ive never budgeted before, she said.

Underground Economy

Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff said the rebound in cash use may in part reflect increased demand for what he calls underground economy services like paying a babysitter in cash to avoid tax. It is quite possible that the underground economy grew during the pandemic and the cash use numbers reflect that, he said. 

Rogoff, author of The Curse of Cash: How Large-Denomination Bills Aid Crime and Tax Evasion and Constrain Monetary Policy, estimates that part of the economy accounts for as much as 10% of US gross domestic product, and more in Europe. 

Credit Karmas findings suggest the rebound in cash use from pandemic lows, documented by both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, might not be just a temporary blip. The uptick in cash use was especially pronounced among younger people, including Millennials and Generation Zs, the survey found. It comes as central banks around the world, including the Fed and the BOE, push ahead with plans to develop digital versions of their currencies.

The BOE said in October it has seen a sustained, if partial, recovery in cash use since the pandemic and that banknotes in circulation remain close to a historic high. Notes and coins remain vital among lower-income households struggling to navigate soaring costs for everything from milk to mortgages. 

UK lender Nationwide Building Society in January said more than 30.2 million withdrawals were made from its ATMs last year, a 19% jump from 2021. 

The durability of cashs resurgence may depend in large part on how well central bankers succeed in taming stubbornly high inflation. But some fintech companies are already trying to adapt, introducing features that help customers set limits on spending. 

Lisa Spantig, assistant professor of experimental economics at Aachen University, said that while she considers frictionless payments generally beneficial, some consumers might need help in making informed decisions. That might ultimately require regulation as the providers of digital payments benefit from high spending rates, she said. 

For example, creating a system that alerts you when you are about to make a purchase in a budget category that you are trying to reduce could be very powerful, especially in comparison to the ex-post budgeting that is currently available, Spantig said.

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