Big Take

Is the Fed Thinking About Inflation All Wrong?

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For over a decade, America’s central bank has had an inflation target of 2%. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced that it would keep its main...

A New Breed of Scammer Is Targeting Asia's Ultra-Rich

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reports of alleged imposters are cropping up more and more in the family office frenzy in Singapore and Hong Kong. The ultra wealthy use family office...

Dirty, Moldy Factories Tied to Recalled CVS-Brand Drugs

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One factory making pain and fever medications for children used contaminated water. Another made drugs for kids that were too potent. A third made nas...

Low-Tech US Explosives Are Now Crucial to Ukraine’s Defense

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Ukraine’s war against Russia drags on, the country has found itself engaged in the kind of trench warfare that once seemed unthinkable in the mod...

Biden Took a Stand on Israel. What’s at Stake If It Fails?

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While President Biden meets with Europe's leaders this week, he is continuing to push for Israel and Hamas to support a cease-fire proposal. But viole...

New Details About Sam Altman’s Past and What They Mean for OpenAI

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has become one of the most prominent leaders in the development of artificial intelligence. But some people – includi...

A Stunning Election Result in India as Modi and BJP Fall Short

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lost its majority in India’s parliament. The stunning blow is forcing Modi to rely on allies to form a gove...

The GameStop Squeeze and the Demise of the Short Seller

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People go to Miami for a lot of reasons including winter sun, Cuban food, retirement. But Bloomberg’s Denitsa Tsekova recently traveled to South Flo...

The Little-Known Green Rule That Could Increase Prices on Everything From Lipstick to Coffee

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A race is on to map millions of farms around the globe – all in the hopes of saving the world’s forests. A new EU deforestation regulation require...

Trump’s Historic Guilty Verdict and What It Means for 2024

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first former US president to be convicted of...

Just How Powerful Is the US President?

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US government was built on a system of checks and balances. But there’s always been a tug of war over just how much power the president has — ...

What OpenAI’s Scarlett Johansson Dustup Reveals About AI

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Generative AI is back in the news – and not for a good reason. First, OpenAI made headlines after the voice it introduced as part of its latest GPT ...

Will the World’s Biggest Nuclear Power Plant Get a Restart?

28 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

All of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors were shut down after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. As the country's energy needs soar, debate is heating up over...

Google’s Moonshot Factory Falls Back to Earth

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Google’s “moonshot” factory, dubbed “X,” encouraged researchers, engineers and developers to dream big for years – no project was too ambi...

Apartheid’s Long Shadow Hangs Over South Africa’s Election

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

South Africa is at a turning point. Thirty years after Nelson Mandela rose to power on a platform of equality, peace, and prosperity, the party he hea...

Who Wins the White House Could Reshape Your Taxes

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were 30 years in the making. Some expire next year, and a nasty battle is brewing over whether to renew them. On today’s Big...

The Man Who Ended Password Sharing at Netflix

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Netflix is the biggest paid subscription streaming service in the world. But two years ago, its dominance was in question after it reported its first ...

What Does China’s Economic Slowdown Mean For the Communist Party?

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After four decades of unparalleled gains in income and wealth, China’s 1.4 billion have been hit by a series of blows: a real estate collapse, a tra...

What the Death of Iran’s President Means for Global Relationships

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The deaths of Iran’s president and foreign minister in a helicopter crash were followed by a declaration of an official mourning period ahead of a n...

The Stock Market After GameStop (Again)

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The meme stock era, led by Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty,” seemed to have come and gone — until this week, when he reemerged on social media. I...

Trump’s 2024 Campaign: Smaller, Nimbler, Faster… And at a Courthouse

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Team Trump is up against historic criminal trials and a failed reelection bid in 2020. Despite this, his 2024 campaign is organized, frugal – and ge...

The Restaurants That Don’t Want to Break Up With Gas Stoves

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After Berkeley, California, became the first city in the US to ban natural gas in new buildings in 2019, it gained an unlikely opponent: the Californi...

The Rise of Modi, Part 2: How India’s Leader Came Back From the Brink

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2002, Narendra Modi was facing the biggest political crisis of his career. But in the aftermath of riots that left more than 1,000 people dead – ...

The Rise of Modi, Part 1: Why India’s Leader Is So Popular – and Polarizing

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Narendra Modi is arguably the world’s most popular politician. With nearly 1 billion Indians eligible to vote in a six-week election that concludes ...

Emmanuel Macron’s Plan to Transform Europe

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When he was first elected to lead France in 2017, President Emmanuel Macron promised nothing less than a revolution. Since then, he’s pushed through...

The Startups Trying to Save Us From Space Junk

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There are more than 100 million pieces of space trash — defunct satellites, rocket parts, dead batteries — all floating around in Earth’s orbit....

It’s About to Get Hot. Small Businesses Will Pay the Price

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The National Weather Service is predicting that vast swaths of the US will see above-average temperatures this summer. That’s weighing on the wallet...

Tim Cook Won’t Be Apple CEO Forever. Who’s Next?

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Cook picked up the mantle from Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple over a decade ago and grew it into a multi-trillion dollar company. Now, as Cook nears t...

Americans Are Spending Billions With ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“Buy Now, Pay Later” options have exploded in popularity and availability, and in the midst of stubborn inflation, Americans are even using them t...

The Man Who Lost $36 Billion in a Week

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Hwang amassed a fortune of $36 billion on Wall Street through his family office, Archegos Capital Management. But over the course of one week in ...

A Billionaire’s Quest to Save a Trillion Trees Is Falling Short

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since 2020, Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff has been on a mission to plant and preserve one trillion trees. The idea behind his initiative,...

Warren Buffett’s Hometown Could Decide the US Election

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Omaha, Nebraska, is billionaire Warren Buffett’s hometown. A quirk in the state’s election law also means it could wind up deciding the 2024 presi...

Immigration Is Up. Housing Supply Isn’t.

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Canada has seen rapid immigration-fueled population growth in recent years. That’s boosted its economy, but housing production hasn’t kept up. The...

All the Eyes, Ears and Algorithms Focused On the Fed

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of last year, the Chair of the US Federal Reserve hinted at cutting interest rates – staving off an expected recession. It was a welcome ...

The ‘Silver Tsunami’ Will Test Australia’s Famed Retirement Program

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Experts have long held up Australia’s 32-year-old “superannuation” system as the retirement model to follow. But as countries all around the wor...

Endowment Funds Are Complicated. Here’s What That Means for Student Protesters.

27 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Protestors at universities across the country have been demanding that their institutions divest from companies that are tied to Israel or the war in ...

This Episode is [Redacted]

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US public’s trust in the media, and the government, is markedly low. A recent Gallup poll found only about 30 percent of Americans trust the med...

What Went Wrong at the House of Gucci

24 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gucci was once a symbol of red-carpet luxury, but its brand, along with its sales numbers, is faltering. This Tuesday, Gucci’s parent company Kering...

What Makes Resource-Rich Qatar Such a Powerful Mediator

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The discovery of natural gas in Qatar back in the 1970s was a transformative economic windfall for the country and its long-time rulers, the Al Thani ...

Tensions Are Growing in the South China Sea

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US and the Philippines kicked off one of the largest military exercises in waters near the South China Sea on Monday. These joint military drills ...

India Offers A Glimpse Into the Rise of Campaign Deep Fakes

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Divyendra Jadoun, known as “The Indian Deepfaker,” is having a pretty busy year. The 31-year-old has built a business around making deep fakes for...

Boeing’s Rise, Fall and Painful Public Reckoning

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tires and doors falling off mid-flight. A top US official stranded because of a 737 jet maintenance issue. Boeing is facing the ire of US lawmakers, s...

The Cocoa Shortage Rocking the Chocolate World

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cocoa has never been so expensive. That’s bad news for players all along the chocolate supply chain: from farmers, to chocolatiers, to chocolate lov...

The Disturbing Extortion Scheme Targeting Teen Boys

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a frightening trend, scammers are catfishing teen boys and trying to extort them — and there have been tragic outcomes. The FBI says this type of...

Iran’s Attack on Israel and What Comes Next

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the weekend, Iran deployed hundreds of drones and missiles in an attack on Israel. Now, Israel weighs its response as US officials and their alli...

‘Bluey’: A Blue Heeler Worth $2 Billion With an Uncertain Future

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bluey, the Australian animated TV show about a family of Blue Heeler dogs, is worth $2 billion. But is Bluey worth that without the show’s auteur ...

The Cost of Keeping US Steel US-Owned

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A Japanese company’s bid to buy US Steel has sparked a fight with the United Steelworkers union — and put the company at the center of the 2024 pr...

Why Pricey Private Colleges Don’t Always Pay Off

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s college acceptance season and many students are facing a decision: prestigious private universities versus cheaper public options. But if they’...

How India Could Overtake China As the Fastest Growing Economy

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

India is posting some of the most robust economic growth rates right now in the world. And with China slowing, India could become the new engine of gl...

On the Ground With Yellen in China

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US-China relationship saw several years of instability — including a trade war, China’s Covid-Zero policy and the discovery of a Chinese spy b...

Argentina’s President Who Promised Radical Change Confronts Reality

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Argentina’s president Javier Milei has made waves since taking office in December. From his plans to abolish his country’s central bank and replac...

Filing Your Taxes Could Get Easier (If This Program Works)

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After years of letting the private tax e-filing industry run the show, the IRS is finally piloting an online tool that’s supposed to make tax season...

Why Hertz’s Big Bet on Teslas Didn’t Work

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Wall Street investors Tom Wagner and Greg O’Hara took over Hertz, they had ambitious plans. They aimed to revolutionize the car rental business...

Traders Ready for Market Turbulence As S&P Hits Highs

02 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With the stock market hitting record highs, many are wondering if it will continue to soar or come crashing down. One way to tell what’s on the mind...

Big Banks are “Quiet Quitting” Their Climate Promises

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Big banks made big promises to help fight climate change. But as the world warms, those institutions are quietly cooling on their plans.  On today’...

Jerry Seinfeld: The Last TV Billionaire?

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jerry Seinfeld is a billionaire, thanks in part to earnings from his iconic 1990s sitcom, Seinfeld. After co-creating and starring in the TV show, Sei...

The Texas Border Town at the Center of the Immigration Debate

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Immigration has become a top issue for voters in the 2024 election cycle, but people on the border want action now — not after November. On the Big ...

The Sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the nearly five months since a jury found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty, a narrative has started to take shape in crypto circles that the business model...

Elon Musk’s Starlink Terminals Have a Black Market Problem

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite program touts itself as a source of reliable internet in hard-to-reach places. But there are some countries where Starli...

Employees Describe Pattern of Harassment and Drug Use in Citigroup Unit

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Citigroup was the first major Wall Street bank with a female CEO. But interviews with 22 people who worked in or closely with the bank’s equities di...

What TikTok Tells Us About China’s Soft Power

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill with an ultimatum for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance: sell the app, or be banned in the US. To...

Japan Has a New Interest Rate: Zero.

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the first time in almost two decades, Japan has raised interest rates out of negative territory. The reason? Inflation has finally arrived in the ...

The MLB Wants to Make It Big in Asia. Shohei Ohtani Can Help

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Major League Baseball has a big problem: it’s tapped out on new fans in the US. So it's looking abroad to Asia to bring in new ones. Japanese baseba...

Crypto Is Back. Bubble or Blastoff?

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cryptocurrencies have been on a tear. Over the past few weeks, Bitcoin has been hitting all-time highs. And many say this is just the beginning.  On ...

The Plumber Shortage Clogging Up the US Economy

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US has a plumber shortage. And as more and more baby boomer plumbers reach retirement, there aren’t enough young people coming in to fill the ga...

The Federal Reserve's Tricky Economic and Political Terrain, Explained

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is trying to navigate a tricky economy – stubborn inflation and persistent fears of a recession. Now, two men ho...

The Vicuñas and the $9,000 Sweater

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Big Take podcast, we trace the origin of Loro Piana’s $9,000 vicuña sweaters to the Andes mountains. Bloomberg’s Marcelo Rochabrun j...

The Big Business of Catastrophe-Betting

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today on the Big Take podcast, we visit the hedge fund with one of the world’s largest collections of catastrophe bonds, Fermat Capital Management, ...

What a Cease-Fire in Gaza Would Look Like

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Israeli and Hamas officials failed to come to a cease-fire agreement before the start of Ramadan this past weekend. That’s adding to the difficulty ...

How Much Does it Cost to Buy an Oscar?

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When the 96th Academy Awards airs this Sunday, the year’s biggest films will face off to compete for the highest honor in the movie industry. For a ...

91 Felony Counts and a Campaign to Run

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump faces four criminal trials amounting to 91 felony counts, and three civil cases. None of this has fazed his base as he runs for election....

Inside Microsoft’s Censorship of Bing in China

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft’s Bing is the second most popular search engine in China, a market that Google exited years ago. Today, Bing remains as the only Western s...

The Biden-Trump Race is On

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fifteen states voted in the presidential primary contest on Super Tuesday, marking a decisive point in the election cycle. Former President Donald Tru...

A New Housing Crisis Is Brewing In Places Prone to Climate Disasters

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As climate risks grow, some private home insurance providers  are retreating from US regions most vulnerable to catastrophe. And homeowners who can’...

Where Does Inflation Go From Here?

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The core personal consumption expenditures price index came in hot last week. After months of evidence that inflation was decelerating, the PCE — th...

Introducing: The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Deal, hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, features intimate conversations with business titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepren...

Chinese Emigrants Are Choosing New Destinations - and Transforming Them

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new wave of Chinese people are leaving China after the Covid-19 pandemic  and they’re headed to places that aren’t the typical destinations for...

The Royal Nephews at the Center of Monaco’s Latest Financial Scandal

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Big Take podcast, an investigation by Bloomberg Businessweek reveals how Prince Albert II’s government regularly favored his nephews in...

Inside Project Maven, the US Military’s Mysterious AI Project

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s episode, the US military’s mysterious project to bring modern artificial intelligence to the battlefield — told by the defense offici...

Private Credit Is Attracting Attention. Not All of It Is Good

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Private credit funds are having a moment. Once under-the-radar lenders that did deals with riskier clients, the firms have gotten a lot more popular a...

Have US Sanctions on Russia Worked?

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, US-led sanctions have incalculably changed its economy – but haven’t ended the war. Treasury’s chief san...

Russia’s Hunt for Arms Meets North Korea’s Need for Cash

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US and other countries say a deeper connection has been forged over a new arms trade between Russia and North Korea. They accuse North Korea of pr...

The Other MH370 Mystery: Why a Key Safety Measure Keeps Stalling

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur just after midnight on March 8, 2014. Aviation officials lost contact with the flight less tha...

How One Business Decision Set Back the Fight Against Malaria

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For years, it seemed like Papua New Guinea was on a course to stamp out malaria. In 2010, the total number of suspected malaria cases in Papua New Gui...

Inside Top Hedge Fund Earners for 2023

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Ackman has had a big year. His constant posting and vocal condemnation of antisemitism on college campuses has won him over a million followers o...

The Little Sanctions Office That Could

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

America’s use of sanctions has grown by almost 1,000% since 9/11. So why isn’t Congress giving the office in charge of them more resources?Today o...

Commercial Real Estate Can’t Ignore Its Empty-Office Problem Anymore

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The commercial real estate market has been upended by changing office habits and rising interest rates. For years, lenders and global investors did no...

Third Party Candidates May Cause Trouble for Biden or Trump

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

American voters are so disillusioned by their options in the presidential election that pollsters have come up with a term for it: “Double-hater.”...

Unexpected Power Surges Are Putting US Homes At Risk

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US power grid has long been under pressure. But now, aging infrastructure is facing more extreme weather, more electricity usage and more renewabl...

Why Driving A Few Miles Can Save You Thousands on Health Care

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For years, the true price of health care in the US has been the result of negotiations between providers, insurance companies and government agencies....

What the 2024 US Election Could Mean for China

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

China’s economy has been in rough shape, and the government is trying to address it. But there’s another threat on the horizon: the US election.D...

The Last Great American (Football) Dynasty

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This Sunday in Nevada, the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. Both teams, like lots of others in th...

How Crypto Is (Finally, Actually) Winning Over Wall Street

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The meltdown at FTX scared a lot of retail investors away from crypto. But many big banks have doubled down, and are pushing cryptocurrency more into ...

Libya’s $5 Billion Fuel-Smuggling Trade Has a Russia Problem

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2022, a tanker called the Queen Majeda was stopped by authorities in Albanian waters, stuffed to the gills with $2 million worth of marin...

Investors Have Sky-High Hopes for AI. Can the Tech Deliver?

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The seemingly vast profit potential of artificial intelligence has helped buoy the stock prices of tech behemoths like Alphabet, Apple and the rest of...

America’s ‘Debt Spiral’ Is Nearing a Critical Threshold

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When the US borrows money, just like any borrower, it needs to pay its loans back with interest.The national debt right now is $34 trillion and rising...

The Brutal Crime Crackdown Taking Hold Across Latin America

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nayib Bukele has brought violent criminal gangs to a heel in El Salvador, transforming the country into one of the safest in Latin America. That’s m...

Why Wind Farms Are Paid Millions to Turn Off

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The UK is in the midst of a green energy transformation, with more than 40% of its electricity coming from wind power as of December. But wind can be ...

A New Era for Microsoft, Activision — And for Gaming

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft recently cut 1,900 jobs from its gaming division and among the layoffs were many at the recently acquired video game developer Activision Bl...

Shawn Fain Takes On the EV Industry and the Election

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has been in the news almost nonstop for successfully negotiating a new contract for union members and, most r...