Odd Lots
Episodes
How Nearly Two Decades Of Fed Policy Contributed To Bubbles, Busts, And A Boom In Debt
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Many people like to claim that the Federal Reserve is responsible for the high degree of leverage and speculation in the economy. But the mechanism vi...
How Bond Defaults Are Changing China's Markets
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For years, defaults were few and far between in China's corporate bond market. Most investors thought that the Chinese government would never let comp...
This is How Economic Crisis and Precarity Shaped the Millennial Generation
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How do Millennials view investing and spending? How do the rising costs of healthcare, education, and housing affect their economic outlook? How does ...
How A Former 'Magic: The Gathering' Player Became the Top Tournament Poker Player Of All Time
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
According to the website The Hendon Mob, the top tournament poker player of all time is the American Bryn Kenney, who has won a staggering $55.5 milli...
Why The Repo Markets Went Crazy, And Why December Could Be Even Worse
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Back in September, chaos erupted in short-term funding markets, as the cost for financial institutions to borrow reserves soared. Immediately a major ...
An Anthropologist Explains How Wall Street Culture Reshaped The Entire Economy
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Where did the notion come from that the obligation of a company's management is to maximize shareholder returns, even if it means pain for workers? On...
Why Taiwanese Life Insurers Are The Great 'Whodunit' Of The Financial World
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You probably haven't thought much about the Taiwanese life insurance industry. Why would you have? But they're among the most fascinating entities in ...
Coming Soon: Travel Genius Season 2
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bloomberg's Travel Genius podcast is back! After clocking another hundred-thousand miles in the sky, hosts Nikki Ekstein and Mark Ellwood have a whole...
How Private Sector Balance Sheets Changed Recessions
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Can the U.S. economy have a recession without it turning into a crisis? In the old days, such garden-variety recessions were fairly common. These days...
Why Governments Haven't Learned The Lessons Of Japan
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's well known that Japan has (until recently) been mired in years of mediocre economic growth. And policymakers and economists use Japan as a warnin...
The Odd Lots Variety Show
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On September 19, 2019, Odd Lots hosted its first-ever live event at the WNYC Greene Space in downtown New York City. With an all-star lineup of guests...
Introducing Stephanomics Season 2
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Stephanie Flanders, head of Bloomberg Economics, returns to bring you another season of on-the-ground insight into the forces driving global growth an...
How Financial Repression in China Helped Cause the Trade War
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For years, China has experienced blistering growth. Driven by an investment-heavy economic model, this growth has limited household income while subsi...
What Businesses Can Learn From the Collapse of Civilizations
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
History is littered with collapsed civilizations ranging from the Maya to Angkor Wat. But what can they tell us about the world today, or doing busi...
Why The Dominant U.S. Dollar Refuses To Go Away
16 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For years, people have been predicting the demise of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. Although the U.S. economy has been shrinking as ...
Huw van Steenis On What Central Banks Will Do Next
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, central bankers gathered at the annual Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A lot of the talk was about the limits of monetary pol...
Why Value Investing Has Been Doing Terribly
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the oldest, most basic strategies in investing is value investing, which, for lack of a better way to put it, means "buy stocks that are cheap....
Introducing Prognosis Season 3: Superbugs
27 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this new season of Prognosis, we look at the spread of infections that are resistant to antimicrobial medicines. You're probably more likely to hav...
How to Forecast the Future
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Every day, people are bombarded with predictions of what will happen in the future. In recent months, talk of 'inflection points' in the markets has h...
John Hempton on What's Ailing Bank Stocks
19 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We live in a world of generally expensive stock markets and bank equities trading at 30-year lows. So says John Hempton, co-founder of hedge fund Bron...
What Negative Interest Rates Mean for the World
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The amount of negative-yielding debt keeps climbing and now includes bonds issued by emerging market countries and some junk-rated companies. On this ...
How Science Fiction Explains the U.S.-China Trade War
05 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's no secret that a lot of the trade tensions between the U.S. and China have centered on technology, and China has accused the U.S. of trying to st...
Here's How People Are Using Cryptocurrency in Venezuela
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, Facebook announced it was launching its own cryptocurrency called Libra. Facebook says Libra is going to have all sorts of benefits, inclu...
The Bullish Case for WeWork
22 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the “unicorn” startups in recent years, perhaps none induces more skepticism than WeWork. Thanks to its gigantic losses and unusual busines...
Why A Longtime Bull Just Flipped Very Bearish On The Stock Market
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's always bears out there predicting that the stock market will tank. But many of them aren't worth listening to because they're always saying th...
What Bitcoin Has To Do With The Dream Of Cryonics
08 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bitcoin has been around for roughly a decade now, but people have been working on the dream of an anonymous, digital currency for a lot longer than th...
Why a Strong Dollar Causes Most of the World Major Pain
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The vast majority of global trade is still denominated in U.S. dollars, making cross-border flows about currencies as much as manufactured goods. On t...
One of Hong Kong's Most Famous Investors Gives His Vision of the City's Future
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a series of historic marches in Hong Kong, with millions of people taking to the streets to protest against an extradition bill that they...
How Auction Guarantees Are Changing The World Of Art
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Famous, unique pieces of art are inherently illiquid. They don't sell very often, and pricing is inherently difficult to estimate. Nonetheless, it's a...
What Boy Band Sensation BTS Can Teach Us About Economics
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
South Korean boy band BTS is rarely connected to economics, but as the biggest success to come out of K-Pop, it arguably should be. On this week's epi...
Why President Trump's Move Against Huawei Is Such A Big Deal
03 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this month, President Trump escalated the trade tensions against China by limiting exports of U.S. technology to Huawei. But what is Huawei, a...
Bloomberg Presents "What Goes Up"
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“What Goes Up” is a new show from Bloomberg that tracks the main themes influencing global markets. Hosts Sarah Ponczek and Mike Regan speak with ...
Meet The Godfather Of Cryptocurrency
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bitcoin has been around for about ten years. But the dream of a decentralized, anonymous digital currency has been around for decades. On this week's ...
Bloomberg and Wondery Present: The Shrink Next Door
23 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Marty Markowitz had his share of problems. His parents had recently died. He had troubles at work. A failing relationship. He needed someone to help h...
Behind the Scenes of Financial Fraud
20 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you lived in NYC a few decades ago, you probably have heard of Crazy Eddie, an electronics retailer that was famous for its outlandish ads on TV. W...
What the Russian Revolution Can Teach Us About Bond Bubbles
13 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When talking government bond defaults, plenty of people think of Argentina and Greece. But the biggest sovereign debt default of all time was arguably...
Introducing: Business of Bees
09 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
These days about one in three bites of food you eat wouldn’t be possible without commercial bee pollination. And the economic value of insect pollin...
How A Poker Pro 'Reads' His Opponents
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Whenever poker is depicted on a TV show or in a movie there's a lot of emphasis placed on the art and science of reading the physical cues that player...
What Will Crypto’s Market Structure Look Like?
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance delisted a Bitcoin offshoot, causing its price to fall. Crypto’s market structure is still in its earl...
The End of An Era for Odd Lots
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
No, no, don't worry, the Odd Lots podcast isn't coming to an end. But for actual odd lots -- trades of securities in unusually-sized increments -- it'...
Introducing "What Goes Up," A New Show From Bloomberg
17 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this new show from Bloomberg, hosts Mike Regan and Sarah Ponczek speak with expert guests each week about the main themes influencing global market...
Why Foreign Investors Cooled On U.S. Debt
15 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's something wrong with prices in funding and bond markets, according to this week's Odd Lots guest. Zoltan Pozsar is a former adviser to the U.S...
MMT And Emerging Markets
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In discussions about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) you often hear that while it may be true that the U.S. has the space to expand its deficits signific...
From MMT Advocate To Outspoken Critic
01 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Cullen Roche, the author of the financial blog Pragmatic Capitalism, explains why he went from an adherent of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) to one of i...
A Critic of Cryptocurrencies Says Bitcoin Needs To Be Burnt With Fire
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's a problem in many debates about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. While many people are inclined to dismiss them as fraudulent ponzi...
The Evolution Of The Online Brokerage Business
18 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The online brokerage business burst on the scene in the late 90s, as at-home traders were lured to try their hand at winning big in the stock market. ...
What's Next For Chinese Trade Talks
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
China is front and center in the news again, thanks to the trade negotiations, as well as the National People's Congress, during which the government ...
Canada's Cannabis Market So Far
04 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In mid-October last year, recreational cannabis became legal in Canada. Of course, there are all kinds of complications with any attempt to introduce ...
How To Analyze An IPO
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Some of Silicon Valley's biggest unicorns like Uber and Slack are expected to go public this year. But when companies finally pull the trigger and lau...
Tech Stock Bubbles In the 17th Century
18 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jamie Catherwood is an investment analyst at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. He's also a major financial history buff, and tells us the story of the tec...
A Message from The Pay Check
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Pay Check is collecting stories for our upcoming season, and we want to hear from you! Did having a kid change your career trajectory or the way y...
Understanding The Big Tech Stocks
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For years, the key to beating the stock market was to invest a lot in the big tech stocks like Facebook and Apple. But in 2018, they stumbled hard, am...
What To Know Ahead Of India's Election
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
India is going to have a general election in the months ahead, and so it's important to understand the state of the economy, and what incumbent Prime ...
How Does The Chinese Economy Work?
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Boesler, an economics reporter for Bloomberg, had the opportunity to report from Beijing for a few months in 2018. He shares with us his experien...
The 1MDB Scandal And The Nature of Debt
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the heart of government debt is a promise to pay back creditors. But governments sometimes don't do this - either by defaulting on their bonds or r...
Making Bitcoin A Currency People Use
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Even at Bitcoin’s recent peak, there was very little active use of the cryptocurrency in normal commerce. On this week's episode, we speak with Bitc...
Introducing "Works For Me," A New Podcast From Bloomberg
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this new show from Bloomberg, hosts Francesca Levy and Rebecca Greenfield navigate the productivity industry by way of their own experiences. In ea...
He Rode The Bitcoin Boom All The Way Up, And Down
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The last two years have been an extraordinary ride for Bitcoin. It exploded in 2017, with the price nearing $20,000 per coin. Then in 2018 it totally ...
This is What Traders Will Be Watching In 2019
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After a volatile 2018, few people in the market expect calm to return anytime soon. Politics, the Fed, and trade will continue to be major sources of ...
These Were The Most Important Stories for Traders In 2018
24 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
2018 will go down as one of the most pivotal for financial markets since the financial crisis. We saw the return of significant volatility, amid poor ...
How Passive Investing Could Change Capitalism
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest macro trend in investing is the rise of so-called "passive investing." But while this may have advantages for the individual investor, it ...
The Market's Big Bet on Low Volatility
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The past couple months have seen the return of volatility in markets. On this edition of Odd Lots, we speak to Chris Cole, the founder of Artemis Capi...
How To Analyze The Currency Markets
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With assets like stocks and bonds, there are clear techniques you can use to value them. But what about currencies? They don't produce cash flows. The...
How Paul Volcker Views His Life
26 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Volcker is widely-regarded as single-handedly halting a period of severe inflation in the U.S. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. But the for...
Why Blockchain May Never Benefit Corporations
19 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For years, a common mantra among corporate executives has been that "the blockchain," the technology underlying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is...
This Is How The Unicorn Bubble Will Burst
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
So-called "unicorns" have become household names in recent years. Multi-billion dollar companies like AirBNB, Uber, and WeWork have become known for p...
Travel Genius, a New Show From Bloomberg
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the most sure-fire way to get a flight upgrade? How can you find the best, secret local restaurants by asking just one question? What's the f...
How The Original Rogue Trader Rebuilt His Life
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If there's one person associated with the term "Rogue Trader" it's Nick Leeson, who singlehandedly brought down Barings Bank in the early 90s, followi...
Prognosis, a New Show From Bloomberg
02 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Where does a medical cure come from? 100 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for scientists to test medicines by taking a dose themselves. As medical techno...
Why Eurodollars Might Be Ground Zero for De-Globalization
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Eurodollars have nothing to do with the euro-dollar exchange rate. Instead, they're effectively a source of dollars that operates outside the control ...
Coming Soon: The New Economy
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bloomberg’s head of economics Stephanie Flanders calls on Bloomberg's worldwide network of reporters and expert commentators to cast a fresh eye on ...
What Will China’s Economy Look Like In 10 Years?
22 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
China has a plan for how it wants to transform into a modern economy. But the future of China’s economy is complicated both by internal factors like...
Coming Soon: The ETF Story
19 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The creation story of the first exchange-traded fund is actually the best way to understand how they work. And it's not just educational, it's enterta...
How To Analyze A Marijuana Stock
15 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Marijuana stocks have been on a tear recently, as investors bet on the explosion of a brand new, legalizing market. But, how should investors actually...
Saudi Arabia's IPO Drama
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A little over two years ago, Saudi Arabia revealed plans to IPO part of its huge state-owned national oil company. The listing would have been the lar...
What David Barse Learned From Watching A Credit Fund Blow Up
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
David Barse was the CEO of Third Avenue Management when one of its credit funds melted down in late 2015. The collapse of the fund touched off a signi...
How To Create The Safest Bank In America
24 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What if there were a bank that could never experience a run? And furthermore, what if it paid higher interest rates on deposits than what you could ge...
What Investors Should Know About The Correlation Between Bonds And Stocks
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sixty percent in equities/40 percent in bonds is a popular, general approach to structuring a diversified portfolio. In theory, when times are good, y...
A Forensic Accounting Expert Explains How Companies Trick Investors
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Companies have all kinds of discretion in how they recognize revenue and costs. Some of this is legit. Some of this is fraud. On this week's episode o...
Matt Levine Dissects Elon Musk's Controversial Tweet
04 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There's been an intense debate about what Tesla CEO Elon Musk meant when he tweeted in early August that he was taking the company private and that fu...
The Time One Of Our Co-Hosts Launched His Own Cryptocurrency
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Weisenthal is a co-host of the Odd Lots podcast. He also once launched his own cryptocurrency called Stalwartbucks. On this week's episode, we spe...
An Emerging Markets Fund Manager Describes What's Happening In Turkey Right Now
20 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Are you confused about the crisis in Turkey? Today's episode will get you cleared up. This week on Odd Lots, we spoke to Paul McNamara, an investment ...
How Wall Street Started Selling You Financial Products
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Open any financial publication and you'll see ads for investment products: exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, and the like. Those ads can tell you a...
How A Post-Keynesian Economist Sees The Markets Right Now
06 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Srinivas Thiruvadanthai is the Director of Research at the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, and one of the most interesting commentators on markets and...
Even The World's Greatest Investors Have Made Horrible Mistakes
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Here's some good news for investors: If you've ever made a disastrous trade, you're not alone. All of the greats have made horrible moves as well. On ...
Why Understanding Financial Fraud Is The Secret To Understanding Business
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to understand how the human body works, you can't just look at healthy humans. You need to examine the ill, so you can see how the body br...
How to Listen to What the Market Is Trying to Tell You
16 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For years, it was pretty quiet in markets. Stocks kept making new highs and volatility drifted to fresh lows. That's changed in recent months and ther...
This Is What's Actually Happening When The Government Auctions Bonds
09 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to the tax cuts, the U.S. deficit is expected to surge again. And of course that's brought greater attention to the government's semi-regular T...
The Internet Is Secretly Powered By Billions Of Tiny Auctions
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows that online advertising pays for a massive chunk of the internet that people know and love, whether it's social networking sites, news,...
The Creator of VaR Explains How Large Banks Measure The Risk Of Their Own Portfolios
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, markets were spooked by blow-ups in a number of volatility-linked products. But dealing with volatility is the foundation of risk m...
Meet The Chicago Floor Trader Who Helped Inspire The Tea Party Movement
18 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A pivotal moment in U.S. political history is when CNBC's Rick Santelli went on a gigantic rant against Obama's stimulus programs while on the floor o...
The Inventor Of 'Bond Vigilantes' Explains Why They Just Showed Up In Italy
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Longtime market analyst Ed Yardeni came up with the term "Bond Vigilantes" to describe the way bond market participants can punish governments who run...
This Is How The Chocolate Market Actually Works
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When you're eating a chocolate bar, there's a good chance you're not thinking about the complex commodity market that allows cocoa beans to make it in...
What the Finance Industry's All-Night Scavenger Hunt Is Actually Like
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For years, big banks, hedge funds and other investment firms took part in an epic scavenger hunt in New York. Inspired by the 1980 movie, “Midnight ...
This Is China's Plan To Be A Technology Powerhouse By The Year 2025
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The recent trade tensions between the Trump administration and China has shone a light on the country's ambitions to become a technology powerhouse, a...
Inside the Multi-Year Quest to Create a Bitcoin ETF
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When Bitcoin first began generating headlines, there were some who thought the cryptocurrency was a fraud and others who thought it was the next big t...
Bonus: The Pay Check, a New Podcast
09 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a big, expensive, global mystery. Why do women still make less money—a lot less—than men? In the US, the average woman makes 80 cents to ev...
This Is How The Paparazzi Business Really Works
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Everybody probably has some vague idea of what the paparazzi do. They ride around on motorcycles, hounding celebrities, and hopefully snapping photos ...
These Stories Of Horse Racing Gamblers Will Get You Psyched For The Kentucky Derby
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Kentucky Derby is coming up in early May, and it's time to get excited. On this week's Odd Lots podcast, we talk to Bloomberg editor David Papadop...
Why The Entire Way We Talk About Millennials Is Wrong
23 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to millennials, the media has certain tropes that it likes to go back to. Millennials love avocados. Millennials aren't into homebuying....