Big Take
Episodes
What's Behind the World's Matcha Shortage
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Japan has a matcha shortage despite record levels of production. Shops are selling out of the green tea powder as soon as they hit the shelves. On tod...
Big Tech Is on Trial. What That Means for the Future of the Internet
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Google has lost two antitrust cases in the past year; Meta is currently in court over alleged anti-competitive behavior. Big Tech is in a moment of re...
Telemarketers’ New Trick to Sell Bare-Bones Health Plans
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A few years ago, a former sitcom writer came up with a weird way to sell Americans cheap health plans, using a loophole in the Affordable Care Act. Mo...
How a CEO’s Faked Results Led to a $300 Million Wipeout
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In late 2018, five years after launching fish-feeding company eFishery, Gibran Huzaifah found himself all out of cash. To save his business, the CEO s...
Warren Buffett Passes the Baton
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Warren Buffett shocked shareholders when he announced he’d be stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The 94-year-old business giant had bee...
Your Morning Commute Could Get Way Worse
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US government stepped in with aid to keep mass transit agencies afloat. But that money is running out and ...
Earnings Are In. Companies Can’t Hide From Tariffs Anymore
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One month after Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, Q1 earnings reports for a range of US companies are in. On today’s epi...
How Goldman Sachs Is Thinking About Tariffs
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariff policies has been spooking business leaders and roiling the markets. And according to Goldman Sachs CEO...
What a Liberal Victory Means for Canada and the Trade War
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In electing Mark Carney as prime minister, Canadians have given him and the Liberal Party a mandate. But it was a narrow victory — one that will...
Inside Trump’s First 100 Days
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump will celebrate 100 days back in office this week. The milestone comes amid a US-China trade war, ongoing conflict overseas and high-st...
Top Colleges Are Too Costly — Even for Parents Making $300K
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tuition at US colleges and universities is higher than ever. But an exclusive new Bloomberg analysis reveals that the cost of a four-year degree is pa...
The Americans With Disabilities Making Under Minimum Wage
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, workers, disability advocates and employers have debated a program called 14(c), a section of employment law that lets companies pay cert...
How Trump’s Tariffs Are Hitting Global Economic Growth
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The International Monetary Fund released a forecast this week projecting that global GDP will grow just 2.8% — down half a percentage point sinc...
The Chinese Toy Company Defying the Trade War
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese toy company Pop Mart is one of the hottest stocks this year thanks to the wild popularity of its Labubu dolls and other blind box toys. On tod...
Can Trump Tell Powell ‘You’re Fired'?
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump’s attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell just keep coming. Today on the Big Take, Bloomberg’s Michael McKee and Sa...
The Vibes Are Off. But Is It a Recession?
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amid tariff whiplash, renewed inflation concerns and turbulence in financial markets, Americans are left wondering: Do the economic vibes match our ec...
Who Will Blink First in the US-China Trade War?
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the trade war between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping continues to escalate, economists around the world are asking who will blink first. On today&rsqu...
A Rubber Company Supplying Top Tiremakers Faces Troubling Accusations
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For years, a rubber and palm oil company that supplies some of the world’s top tiremakers has been dogged by allegations of sexual coercion at i...
Inside the Explosive Feud That Rocked Singapore’s Richest Family
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, Singapore’s Kwek family, owners of one of the city’s biggest developers, looked to be the model of a successful family-run bu...
America Is Pumping The Brakes On EVs. GM Is Doubling Down.
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a tough year for electric vehicles: Since President Trump took office for a second term, the US has started a complete 180 on its inve...
Forget the S&P or CPI. Meet the Bacon Egg and Cheese Index
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to measuring economic pain, the cost of a humble breakfast sandwich might not be top of mind. But Bloomberg has an index that tracks the...
What a Trade War Means for Your Money
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a bewildering time for retail investors trying to make sense of global markets. In the week since President Trump unveiled sweeping ta...
What the Heck Just Happened in the Bond Market?
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a rollercoaster of a week for global markets. As President Trump goes back and forth about the size and scope of his tariffs, Bloomber...
Why Asia Was Hit Hardest by Trump’s Tariff Onslaught
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump shocked the world -- and global markets -- with tariffs that exceeded expectations last week. But there was one region that ...
The Trump Trade War’s First Casualty? The Bull Market
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a volatile few days across global markets. As the equity sell-off has deepened, a growing number of market strategists have revised do...
DNA and Bankruptcy Collide With 23andMe
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, after years of slowing sales, legal trouble, and a declining stock price. And now, ...
Trump Announces Sweeping New Tariffs. What’s Next
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trump announced the steepest American tariffs in more than a century, with a 10% tariff on all exporters to the US and even higher duties on some 60 n...
As India’s Stock Market Surged, So Did Investment Scams
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
India’s historic stock market surge sparked a retail-investing frenzy that minted millionaires. But the boom also became a breeding ground for f...
Princeton’s President Responds to Attacks on Higher Education
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration is targeting higher education. Colleges and universities across the United States are faced with the threat of funding freeze...
What We Know About Trump’s Planned Tariffs
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump is calling April 2nd “Liberation Day” — that’s when the president says the world can expect the biggest...
Levittown Episode 6: Warp Speed
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the series finale, our reporters try to crack the secretive companies behind nudify apps that let users create deepfakes in minutes. And a new case...
Levittown Episode 5: The Vigilantes
29 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kayla faces down her harasser in court. In New Zealand, an investigator summons a global army of hackers. Levittown is a real-life horror story...
Levittown Episode 4: 'How Is That Not Illegal'
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An arrest in Levittown kicks off the next phase of an investigation. The central question for the prosecutors is: Is any of this a crime? And they&rsq...
They Bought Dream Homes in Tulum. Then Came the Nightmare
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tulum, Mexico has exploded in popularity since the early years of the pandemic. The area’s few Covid restrictions, picturesque beaches and laidb...
Elizabeth Warren Wants Democrats to Fight
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Senator Elizabeth Warren has been shaping US policy for years. She helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 financial cri...
Private Equity’s New Pitch: Investing Your 401(k)
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Private equity is looking for new ways to raise capital. The industry has its eye on a $12 trillion piece of America’s retirement market. ...
Googling in the ChatGPT Era
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Search is the most lucrative part of Google’s business. So when ChatGPT launched in 2022 and offered to answer users’ every question, it p...
Levittown Episode 3: The Hunter
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not just Levittown. The website hosting the doctored photos is the nexus of campaigns to harass women across the world. A victim in New Zea...
Levittown Episode 2: ‘I’m Also on the Website’
22 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Months after Kayla’s discovery, dozens of women in Levittown, a New York suburb on Long Island, learn they, too, are subjects of faked porn. Mos...
Levittown Episode 1: Me... But Not Me
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
SHOW DESCRIPTION New Year’s Eve. Levittown, New York. Word travels swiftly as one young woman tells the next: “You’re on the website...
Another Space-Obsessed Billionaire Has Entered the Chat
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The International Space Station’s time in the stars will soon come to an end. NASA has said that the ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned in 20...
The World Is Paying for Trump’s China Tariffs
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trump's tariffs on China are causing a lot of pain around the world. Products that would've gone to the US are now pouring into other countries, leadi...
Decoding the Fed With Randy Quarles
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a busy week for the Federal Reserve, between Trump’s nomination of a new vice chair for supervision on Monday and an anticipated rate...
How Wall Street Thinks About Crypto’s Future
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Crypto optimism soared after President Trump’s re-election and Bitcoin hit an all-time high the day of his inauguration. But it's been on someth...
Can Nvidia Stay on Top?
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
CEO Jensen Huang has always said Nvidia is “thirty days from going out of business.” Even though Nvidia is now worth trillions, Huang is f...
Trump's Trade War Comes for Metals
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After weeks of uncertainty that ricocheted through markets, President Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from every country in th...
Investors Eye a Return to Russia
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As Trump signals a warmer relationship with Putin and a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine comes into focus, optimistic investors and businesses ar...
China’s Power Play In the Indian Ocean
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mauritius and neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean are at the center of a great-power chess match involving the US, China and India. All want to us...
A Trump Slump? How to Navigate Choppy Markets
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It has been a wild few weeks in markets.By last week, the S&P 500 had wiped out all its gains since Election Day – $3.4 trillion in value. W...
Xi’s Big Challenge Is Getting People to Spend, Spend, Spend
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A crippling property crisis, mounting debt, weak consumer spending… and now a trade war. Despite the headwinds, China has set an ambitious econ...
A Warming Planet vs. Trump
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since taking office in January, President Trump has set in motion a series of sweeping rollbacks on US climate policy. This comes at a time when gover...
What Trump’s Address Reveals About the Path Ahead
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump appeared before a joint session of Congress for the first time since the start of his second term. It was his...
Why Harvard Law Is Losing Black Students
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The data is in: The number of Black first-year students at Harvard Law fell dramatically after the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the considera...
How Facebook, Tinder and Airbnb Are Being Used for Sex Trafficking in Colombia
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2024, the US Embassy issued a warning to all American travelers: Be careful using dating apps in Colombia. Eight men had been killed in two...
What’s Behind All of the US Air Travel Accidents?
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last few months, a spate of high-profile air travel incidents in North America have captured public attention. And it’s raised concerns...
When a Small Town Gets a Big Data Center
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Hopeful Primitive Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Georgia, has been standing for two hundred years. Now, with a huge, private equity-backed data c...
Xi Has Embraced China’s Tech Titans Once Again. Will It Last?
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Four years after launching a regulatory crackdown that plunged the tech sector into turmoil, China’s President Xi Jinping sat down publicly with...
The $500 Billion Medicare Overpayment Claim
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More than half of Americans enrolled in Medicare receive their coverage from a private insurer through a program called Medicare Advantage. But accord...
Inside Walmart’s Next Chapter With CEO Doug McMillon
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Doug McMillon has been running Walmart since 2014. He’s credited with pushing the company into the digital age and successfully steering it thro...
Why Eggs Are So Expensive Right Now
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The price of eggs was up 15% in January, driving overall inflation higher. The cause? Bird flu. We’re joined by farmer Jim Hayes, as well as the...
How Trump Is Turning to Russia to End the War in Ukraine
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Monday marks the three year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And over the last few days, Trump has revealed his approach ...
Undocumented Workers Helped Build Elon Musk’s Tesla Gigafactory
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last four-and-a-half years, the footprint of Elon Musk’s Texas business empire has undergone rapid expansion. It now includes SpaceX fa...
How Amazon Rival Temu Got Sucked Into Trump’s Trade War
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since its US launch in 2022, Chinese marketplace Temu has rapidly risen to become America’s biggest e-commerce platform after Amazon, thanks to ...
How a Libertarian Island Experiment Became an $11 Billion Nightmare
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Prospera is a city-state operated by a private company on the Honduran island of Roatan. It offers businesses single-digit tax rates and the ability t...
It’s Not You. There’s a Dating Recession Happening Right Now
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This Valentine’s Day, as many as 13 million more Americans are single than before the pandemic. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloombe...
The Battle Over USAID Is Heating Up
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump’s attacks on a key international aid agency, USAID, has left its work frozen and kicked off a fierce legal battle between his ad...
How Intel Lost Its Edge
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Intel invented computer processors and was a dominant supplier of chips for decades. Now AI is fuelling record demand for next-generation chips. But B...
China’s New Game Plan for Dealing With Trump Tariffs
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As US President Donald Trump imposes new tariffs on China, Xi Jinping's government has had a far more muted response than it did during the trade war ...
For European Start-Ups, Valuation Depends On Location, Location, Location
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Financial markets in Europe have long been fragmented and constrained, driving home-grown startups to list and raise capital in the US. Now, Europe is...
How Much Is a Wall Street Bonus Really Worth?
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s bonus season on Wall Street. But if you work for a bank, you know that the number you’re quoted is almost never the number you get wh...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on DOGE, Taxes and the Fed
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nine days after his swearing in, Scott Bessent sat down with Big Take DC host Saleha Mohsin at the US Treasury Department. They discussed topics in hi...
What Economists Talk About When They Talk About AI
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley tech leaders have been brimming with optimism in recent years about the future of artificial intelligence — and investors have be...
Trump Is Trying to Take Control of Spending From Congress. Will It Work?
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trump says the president should be able to decide how to spend taxpayer money – not Congress. Part of his plan? Impoundment: A controversial man...
The Tariff Wars Are Here — And They’re Messy
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is it a trade war or is it whiplash? On Saturday, President Trump announced new 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, and an additional...
What's Behind Gold's Record Rally
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shuibei, in southern China, is home to one of the world's biggest retail markets for gold. Over the past year, it's seen a boom in demand for the jewe...
A Uranium Mine, the Navajo Nation and a Six-Month Standoff
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, the Navajo Nation and the mining company, Energy Fuels Inc., announced a new agreement detailing how uranium could be transported throug...
How Trump and Musk Are Testing Boeing’s Path to Recovery
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a tough stretch for Boeing. Its new CEO Kelly Ortberg is trying to rebuild public trust and turn the company’s finances around, ...
Tariffs Could Hit Canada Soon. Its Ex-Finance Minister Wants to Hit Back
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chrystia Freeland sent shockwaves through Canada when she resigned as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Finance Minister in December. Her public r...
The DeepSeek Freak Out
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The AI chatbot from DeepSeek, a Chinese company, rocketed to the top of US app stores over the weekend — and sent US tech shares plummeting Mond...
Influencers Fueled Zyn’s Rise. Could the Attention Backfire?
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Zyn nicotine pouches hit the market as a run-of-the-mill tobacco-replacement product, but over the past few years, they’ve gone viral thanks to ...
Is Work From Home Officially Over?
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As President Trump and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon require workers to come back to the office full-time, the costs and benefits of remote versus in-offic...
The Most Influential Person in Davos Isn’t There
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With Donald Trump back in the White House, global business leaders attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland thi...
Americans Flocked to RedNote as the TikTok Ban Loomed. Will the Party Last?
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US ban on TikTok saw millions of users – predominantly Americans – flock to another Chinese social media platform: Xiaohongshu, also k...
The Second Trump Era Begins
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday at the US Capitol, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th American President. He then took to the podium to make his inaugural address and, s...
Antony Blinken: The Exit Interview
18 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In his final month as the United States’ chief diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken raced around the globe, responding to confl...
Janet Yellen: The Exit Interview
18 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been a fixture in the economic policy world for decades. She was President Clinton’s chief economic adviser,...
Gary Gensler: The Exit Interview
18 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gary Gensler’s tenure as Wall Street’s top regulator is coming to an end, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission chair is reflectin...
What Higher Bond Yields Mean for Markets and Everyday Borrowers
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The relentless rise in government bond yields has Wall Street worried. Higher treasury yields can impact borrowing costs on everything from ...
How Scott Bessent Made His Way Into Trump’s Inner Circle
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Bessent is President-Elect Trump’s pick to be the treasury secretary, a role that spans oversight of the $28 trillion market for US govern...
The Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Deal and What Comes Next
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 15 months of a grueling war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, Israel and Hamas agreed to phase one of a ceasefire deal on Wednesday. ...
South Korea Has Plenty of Botox But Not Enough Doctors
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A record 600,000 people traveled to South Korea for medical procedures in 2023, with roughly half of those visiting dermatology and plastic surgery cl...
Time Runs Short on TikTok in the US
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US Supreme Court is set to rule on TikTok’s fate this week. The social media platform is in court challenging a law that would force i...
Gary Gensler: The Exit Interview
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gary Gensler’s tenure as Wall Street’s top regulator is coming to an end, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission chair is reflectin...
A Wildfire Disaster and an Insurance Crisis Collide in Los Angeles
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Deadly wildfires in the Los Angeles area have forced nearly 180,000 residents to evacuate their homes. As they wait to learn the extent of the damage,...
The ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once’ Cyber Threat
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US intelligence officials say that a hacking campaign known as “Volt Typhoon” has the potential to disrupt critical infrastructure systems...
Inflation Claims Another Incumbent, This Time in Canada
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was resigning — the latest in a series of incumbents around the world who&r...
OpenAI’s Sam Altman Sits Down With Bloomberg Businessweek
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After CEO Sam Altman was dramatically fired and rehired in November 2023, he got right back to work building up OpenAI, best known for ChatGPT. ...
The Human Egg Trade: Episode 3 - The Journey
04 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new series from the Big Take podcast investigates the booming market for human eggs. In this episode, host Sarah Holder and Bloomberg’s Jessic...
We Read Hundreds of 2025 Market Predictions So You Don’t Have To
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, senior markets editor Sam Potter reads predictions for the year ahead from leading financial institutions around the world. The theme of t...
The Year AI Broke Into Music
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 was the year AI broke into the music industry. Record labels that had fought AI-generated songs at every turn started to consider how they might ...