Odd Lots
Episodes
Years of Restrictions Didn't Slow China's Quest for Tech Dominance
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, China identified several key industries of the future for which it aimed to compete at the technological frontier. The 'Made in China 2025' p...
Why Home Insurance in Florida Is a Mess
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Florida has been struck by two big hurricanes this year, setting off a wave of damage and, of course, new insurance claims. As we all know by now, ins...
Listen Now: The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly
27 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When sports, business and culture collide, there’s often a deal to be made. Join Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg correspondent Jason Kelly as they get ...
Lots More on the Ongoing Mess That Is Boeing
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shares of Boeing, America's biggest aerospace manufacturer, have plummeted 40% so far this year. The company is facing a string of challenges, includi...
How Banks and Private Credit Became the Best of Frenemies
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By now, everyone knows that private credit is a hot market. What's less known is that banks want in on it too. It's an odd state of affairs given that...
Why Mortgage Rates Went Up After the Fed's Big Cut
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On September 18, the Federal Reserve kicked off the cutting cycle by reducing overnight rates by 50 basis points. Since then, mortgage rates have gone...
Meb Faber on the Big Bear Market in Diversification and Tactical Allocation
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, investors have been told that diversifying is a good thing. You should hold a basket of stocks across different sectors and geographies, ...
Richard Koo and Zichen Wang on What Just Happened in China
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In September, Chinese policymakers shocked the markets by unveiling a set of stimulus measures designed to boost the economy and bolster the real esta...
Apollo Explains How Big Tech Is Disrupting Credit Markets
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Big tech stocks have had an enormous impact on the stock market, with Magnificent 7 companies like Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia now dominating equity i...
The ROI Rules of AI: Sirion's Legal AI (Sponsored Content)
13 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What if your contracts could be a roadmap to running your business – the first step in managing your relationships with your suppliers and clients? ...
Austan Goolsbee on How This Cycle Turned Out To Be So Different
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022 and 2023, the Federal Reserve basically had one focus: defeating inflation. That's now changed. Keeping inflation at bay is still important, b...
The Ultra-Rich Are Building a Separate World Here on Earth
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, we've seen the emergence of cities whose main industry is that they're a great place to live if you're rich. Dubai would be the ultim...
The Math That Explains How Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds Make Money
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-strategy hedge funds are still all the rage on Wall Street, but what does it actually mean to be a pod shop and how are they being set up? On th...
Lots More on the Ongoing Mess That Is Intel
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US is in the midst of a big effort to bring more semiconductor manufacturing onshore. Intel is the biggest US semiconductor manufacturer. There's ...
The Big Tax Hike Coming in Just Over a Year
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which may be better known as the Trump tax cuts. Due to the way fiscal policy works in the United ...
Jigar Shah on the Three Big Things Driving the Nuclear Energy Revival
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this month, we got the surprising headline that the shuttered nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island will be restarted. Of course, Three Mile Is...
Lots More on Potentially Massive East Coast Port Strikes
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Look out. Supply chains are back in the news. As soon as next week, workers at all of the ports on the US East Coast could go on strike, crippling tra...
This Is How Industrial Policy Can Go Bad
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, industrial policy is back in vogue in the US. The administration is making an effort at reviving specific sectors, notably in areas of clea...
Ariel Investments' John Rogers on How You Can Still Win With Value Investing
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
These days if you talk to people about the stock market, they might talk to you about the effect of the Fed. Or they'll talk about the Mag 7 and AI ca...
Lots More With Sam Ro on the Booming World of RIAs
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Future Proof Festival takes place right on the beach in Huntington Beach, California. Thousands of registered investment advisors from all over th...
The Next Stage of the Credit Cycle with Oaktree’s Poli
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Fed cut benchmark rates by 50 basis points. Lower financing costs should be a relief for companies that need to borrow in the form of b...
Pimco CIO Dan Ivascyn on the Biggest Fed Decision in Years
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s Fed Day, and while everyone expects the central bank to cut benchmark interest rates, the key question is by how much? Will it be 25 basis poin...
How Josh Brown Created A Financial Media Empire
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
15 years ago was a pivotal moment for financial media. On the one hand, we were in the midst of a huge financial crisis, which shook everything up and...
Security, Bookmarked: Finance (Sponsored Content)
15 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Financial institutions have been a leading target for cyber crime since the dawn of the internet. But phishing schemes have become far more intricate,...
Lots More With Isabella Weber on Draghi's EU Competitiveness Report
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, former European Central Bank President and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi published a long-awaited report examining ways to make the E...
Adam Tooze on the Big Misconceptions of the Chinese Economy
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the big buzzwords over the last year or so has been "overcapacity." There's a constant line of argument that China is unfairly flooding the wor...
US Trade Rep Katherine Tai Describes the New Era of Globalization
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the rare areas of bipartisan consensus in the US right now, is on the need to change our trading relationship with China. Former President Dona...
The Booming Crypto Use Case That's Happening Right Now
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pretty much since the moment that cryptocurrencies came into existence, there's been a chorus of skeptics who argue that they solve no real world use ...
How Hedge Funds Discover the Next Superstar Trader
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the problems in investing or trading is that — to use a common disclaimer — past results are no guarantee of future success. Someone can ha...
The Black Hole of Private Credit That's Swallowing the Economy
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a lot of talk about private credit in recent years. The market has exploded in size, and there are worries that it could be a bubble that...
Adam Posen on the Dangers of Jerome Powell's 'Rifle Shot' Jackson Hole Speech
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week at Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered a short and powerful speech indicating that it's time for a policy pivot. The...
Hyun Song Shin on How Big the Yen Carry Trade Really Is
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Remember August 5th? That was the day that markets around the world plunged in historic fashion and everyone became an overnight expert on the yen car...
A New Way for the Fed to Fight a Market Crisis
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the Treasury market broke in March 2020, the Federal Reserve intervened in extraordinary fashion. It purchased more than $1 trillion worth of Tre...
This Is What The Rate Cut Cycle Could Look Like
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At Jackson Hole, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave a clear signal that the rate cut cycle is likely to start in September. But of course that just opens...
What It’s Like to Be a Fed President at Jackson Hole
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This year’s Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming marked a big change for US monetary policy, with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell tele...
Lots More on What We Just Learned at Jackson Hole
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City hosts an economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s a chance for central bankers and othe...
The Hottest Way for Banks to Get Risk Off Their Balance Sheets
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Synthetic risk transfers, in which banks purchase insurance-like protection on some of their loans, is a growing market on Wall Street, with billions ...
Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova on the Art of Election Betting
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Political prediction markets — where traders can make bets on election outcomes — have been around for years. But in this cycle in particular, we'...
Lots More With Claudia Sahm on What the Sahm Rule Is Saying Now
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve appears to be ready to pivot into rate cutting mode. Inflation has come down significantly, and the unemployment rate has been tre...
How the White House Thinks About Economic Security
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The past few years have thrown up a number of potential weaknesses in the American economy. There've been disruptions to supply chains stemming from t...
How the US Treasury Will Fund the Next $20 Trillion in Debt
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to financing the US government's borrowing needs, the Treasury Department has some discretion in how it's done. It can sell 30-year Trea...
How a Traditional Toymaker Is Going Big on Digital Games
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hasbro has been making toys for decades, including many classic favorites like G.I. Joe and My Little Pony. But in recent years, it's also been going ...
Goldman Sachs CIO on How the Bank Is Actually Using AI
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's a lot of hype around generative AI and many people have interfaced with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini at this point. It's fun to ask these large ...
Lots More on Solving the Mystery of the Big Market Selloff
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The S&P 500 has plunged more than 5% over the past couple of trading days. The Nasdaq 100 is down 7%. The Nikkei fell an astonishing 13% on Monday...
Matt King on the Hidden Forces Driving the Market Selloff
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Nasdaq is now in correction territory and the S&P 500 is down more than 2% so far this month. Analysts are blaming any number of things for th...
Lots More: Did the Fed Just Make a Policy Mistake?
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates unchanged while suggesting that it could cut as soon as September. But there's an ongoing ...
Two Veteran Chip Builders Have a Plan to Take On Nvidia
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to chips for artificial intelligence, obviously the name that automatically comes to mind is Nvidia. The company is making a fortune sel...
Zyns, Vapes and the Very Weird Market for New Nicotine Products
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vapes like Elf bars seem to be everywhere now. Meanwhile, Zyn nicotine pouches have become a huge seller for Philip Morris and are in such demand that...
A Top Miami Broker on the Booming Market for Ultra-Luxury Homes
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We've all seen headlines about the multi-million dollar properties being sold in Miami. Right now, there's a $135 million mansion in Coconut Grove lis...
How the Hottest Hedge Funds on Wall Street Really Manage Risk
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-strategy hedge funds, also known as "pod shops," have become the hottest ticket on Wall Street. The business model is supposed to allow hedge fu...
The US and China Are in an All Out Race For AI Domination
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are several sources of tension right now between the US and China. Pure trade anxiety is a big one, with the US having imposed tariffs on Chines...
Lots More on JD Vance and the Future of the US Dollar
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When people talk about the special role that the US dollar plays in the global economy, that's often characterized as a privilege for the United State...
A Guggenheim Executive's Radical Plan to Build Millions of New Homes
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
According to numerous estimates, the US is massively short of housing. Zillow, for instance, says America needs to build 4.5 million new homes to clim...
Stephen Roach Warns of Disaster From Our 'Sinophobic' China Policy
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the rare areas of bipartisan consensus in the US right now is taking a tough line on China. We saw President Trump put tariffs on Chinese goods...
James van Geelen on Thematic Investing Right Now
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
James van Geelen, founder of Citrini Research, scored big when he made his weight loss drug-related investments last year. He was also early into arti...
Joseph Stiglitz on How to Build Shock-Proof Supply Chains
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winning economist known for his groundbreaking work on information gaps and risk-taking in markets. But he's recently...
MMT's Godfather Says the US Government Is Spending Like a Drunken Sailor
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Modern Monetary Theory has gained prominence over the last several years by offering an alternative view on the constraints to fiscal policy. The basi...
Lots More With Stinson Dean on Crashing Lumber Prices
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lumber prices have tumbled dramatically in recent weeks, with benchmark futures falling about 20% in the past four months alone. What's more, this is ...
How Brazil Gave Birth to One of the World's Greatest Jet Makers
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There aren't many advanced manufacturing success stories in Latin America. And globally, there aren't many companies that can build commercial planes ...
How Brad Jacobs Will Invest $4.5 Billion to Reshape Building Supplies
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brad Jacobs has made a career of starting, consolidating, and growing whole industries. He did a trucking company. He did a warehouse company. He has ...
The Theory That Explains Why Everyone Went Crazy
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Does it feel to you like society has gone crazy? Well, you're not alone. There's a general view that all around the world, in the realms of politics, ...
Lots More With Neil Dutta on a Looming Fed Policy Error
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neil Dutta, the top economist over at Renaissance Macro, has generally been sunny and optimistic about the economy over the last four years or so. But...
The American Entrepreneurs Who First Opened The Chinese Market
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From cars to toys to clothes, we're just used to seeing the label "Made In China" on all sorts of things. But how did China become a go-to destination...
Why Tom Lee Thinks We Could See S&P 15,000 by 2030
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The stock market has had a torrid run in 2024 despite the fact that interest rate cuts haven't materialized in the way people had expected at the star...
CoreWeave's CSO on the Business of Building AI Datacenters
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows that the AI boom is built upon the voracious consumption of chips (largely sold by Nvidia) and electricity. And while the legacy cloud ...
John Arnold on Why It's So Hard To Build Things in America
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Virtually everyone, across the ideological spectrum, has the view right now that it's too hard to build things (or get things done generally) in Ameri...
Evolving Money: Money Without Borders (Sponsored Content)
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, financial markets have struggled with the issue of borders. Borders create friction, add cost and cause headaches for anyone who w...
The Big Trade Underneath the Strangely Calm Surface of the S&P 500
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For much of this year, the S&P 500 has marched steadily higher while measures of stock market volatility, like the VIX, have stayed pretty low. Bu...
What a 'Degen' Crypto Trader Really Does All Day
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A few lucky people have made generational wealth trading the ups and downs of the crypto market. And some finance professionals have shifted gears to ...
How Indonesia and China Cornered the Nickel Market
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a huge change in the market for nickel, which goes into everything from electric vehicles to steel. Indonesia has grown to absolutely dom...
Elon Musk Dominates Outer Space Like Nobody Has Before
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The company that Elon Musk is most known for, obviously, is Tesla. It's been extraordinarily successful and made him one of the richest people in the ...
This Is How the Food Industry Is Preparing For a Post-Ozempic World
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The rise of GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic, is a potentially existential threat to the makers of salty, sugary, high-calorie snack foods. But it's obvious ...
Lots More with Kyla Scanlon on the Economic Vibes
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kyla Scanlon has a great way of identifying the economic vibes, building up a massive TikTok following with videos about the Federal Reserve, inflatio...
Orsted's Americas CEO on Fixing What Went Wrong in Wind Power
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year was a bad one for the US wind power industry, with lots of cancelled projects, writedowns, and an overall reassessment of how the math behin...
Corporations Learned The Maximum Amount They Can Charge For a Product
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's the price of a hamburger? Well, it depends. Are you making the purchase on the spot? Did you order ahead using an app? Are you a frequent custo...
Lots More on the Two Troubled NYC Office Buildings Everyone's Talking About
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two weeks, two New York City office buildings have become major talking points in the market for commercial real estate. Troubles at 174...
The Big Problem With the Modern Electricity Grid
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The modern electricity grid is a weird thing. The delivery of electricity is a natural monopoly, for kind of obvious reasons. Despite that, we still a...
Are We Doing Decarbonization Totally the Wrong Way?
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The cost of solar has been plunging for years. Everyday there's a new headline about growing installation of renewables or batteries, or some other si...
How a Professional Sports Bettor Really Makes Money
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The gambling industry in the US has exploded in recent years, and suffused every aspect of sports consumption. You can bet on who will win or lose jus...
Lots More With Luke Kawa on Memestock Mania 2.0
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Remember GameStop? The poster-child for 2021's memestock mania recently surged almost 5x in a matter of days — and it was all catalyzed by a few twe...
How a DOJ Economist Approaches Antitrust in America
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have taken an invigorated approach to antitrust under the Biden administration, targeting c...
Introducing: Big Take Asia
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re taking The Big Take to Asia. Each week, Bloomberg’s Oanh Ha tells a story from the home of the world's most dynamic economies - and the mark...
How to Succeed at Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-strategy hedge funds are all the rage right now. But there's also a lot of confusion about what exactly they do, and how the the so-called "pod ...
Jeff Currie on Why Copper Is His Highest-Conviction Trade Ever
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Copper has long been touted as a big winner from the world's drive towards electrification. All those electric vehicles and new grids need lots of the...
Pierre Andurand Says the World Could Run Out of Cocoa Inventories
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pierre Andurand made his name trading oil and other energy-related assets, but wild swings in the price of cocoa have recently lured the founder of An...
Viktor Shvets on How the Fed Has Become a Prisoner of Its Own Making
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we'll get fresh inflation data in the US, which will inevitably feed into the Federal Reserve's future decisions to raise, hold or lower be...
Lots More With Brad Setser on the Yen, a New China Shock and Excavators
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's a lot going on in currency markets and global trade at the moment. The Japanese yen has been falling, even after authorities seemed to interve...
Hugh Hendry on the "Terrifying" Yen Move, and Risk of "Mad Max" Deflation
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hugh Hendry says the world is brimming with risks right now, from Chinese deflation, to the strength of the US dollar, to unrealized losses in US Trea...
What a Fed President Hears When He Goes on the Road
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve has a lot of official statistics it can look at to try and gauge the state of the overall economy. But there's also room for incor...
Lots More on How CHIPS Act Money Got Awarded
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS Act, which set aside tens of billions of dollars in loans and grants in order to encourage companies to build new s...
Luis von Ahn Explains How Computers and Humans Learn From Each Other
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Breakthroughs in generative AI have created enormous opportunities for humans to learn from computers. We can use them to explain the news, understand...
The Ultra Wealthy Have Their Own Separate World of Real Estate
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the past, the most expensive housing in any major city would be connected in some way to the economics of the city itself. If the general market wa...
An Ex-CIA Officer Explains How to Spot a Lie in Business
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When most investors think of due diligence, they think of sifting through years of financial statements and crunching numbers to better understand a c...
Here's Who's Winning the Global Fight for AI Talent
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
AI is all the rage right now. There are billions of dollars now flowing into the space, with large and small companies all competing to create the n...
Josh Wolfe: The ChatGPT of Robotics is Coming
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last year or so, probably every venture capitalist has become interested in artificial intelligence. So people are still figuring out what ty...
Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin On Getting Inflation Under Control
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of 2023, there was a lot of optimism that the US economy was on that glide path to a soft landing. But at least in the first quarter of thi...
What AMLO's Legacy Means For Mexico's Upcoming Election
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On June 2, 2024, Mexicans will go to the polls to elect a successor to current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His chosen successor, former M...
How The American Workforce Got Hooked on Adderall
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last few years, users of the popular ADHD drug Adderall have been frustrated by regular shortages in getting their prescriptions filled. Vari...
How Electric Utilities Will Handle Booming AI Datacenter Demand
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For years and years, utilities in the US haven't seen much growth in electricity demand. The economy is generally mature and has been able to grow eve...
Introducing Money Stuff: The Podcast
13 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The audio companion to Bloomberg Opinion’s beloved Money Stuff column hosted by its author Matt Levine, “whose deadpan style mixes technical eluci...