Odd Lots
Episodes
Lots More on America's Electrical Components Crisis
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021 and 2022, the US economy experienced historic shortages of many different goods. All kinds of consumer, construction, and high-tech components...
Tractor Supply's CEO on How It Escaped the Post-Pandemic Curse
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A bunch of companies saw their share prices boom during the pandemic. Peloton surged because no one could go to gyms. Zoom jumped because no one cou...
Why a Former Freight Broker Is Making a Major Bet on Mexico
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
US imports from Mexico are surging. Former President Trump's tariffs on China, as well as the renegotiated USMCA treaty, have encouraged supply chains...
Steve Eisman on the Three Big Macro Stories of Our Time
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Eisman became a famous name in the investing world due to his prescient bet against the US housing market before 2008, which led to his starring...
Why Savita Subramanian Thinks Stocks Can Keep Going Higher
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Savita Subramanian, head of US equity strategy at Bank of America, raised her outlook for stocks at the end of last year, there was a lot of skep...
Why the CRE Urban Doom Loop May Still Be Coming
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to the collapse in office real estate, there's a lot of focus on who owns the debt, and what kind of pain must eventually be realized by...
Lots More on the Parabolic Surge in Cocoa Prices
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The cost of cocoa beans has surged to a record $10,000 per metric ton. That's expected to make chocolate more expensive for millions of confectionary ...
The Mega Corporations That Control What Americans Eat
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Walk into a grocery store today and there are seemingly endless shelves of product to choose from. But behind all those different options are a handfu...
Sal Mercogliano on the Baltimore Bridge Collapse
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On March 26th, a massive container ship called the Dali ploughed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, a major overpass just outside the city's p...
Listen Now: The Big Take
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters aroun...
The Economist Who Believes AI Will Be Great for the Middle Class
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
AI is an incredibly exciting space, provoking both great wonder and fear. One of the big worries obviously is: What will happen to everyone's job? Wil...
Lots More on the Big Can Kick in Commercial Real Estate
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, we spoke with Rich Hill, head of real estate strategy and research at Cohen & Steers, about where stress was building in the $20 trilli...
Why Home Insurance Markets in California and Florida Imploded
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, we've seen home insurance premiums soar by historic amounts. Not only have prices gone up, but in some instances, we've seen national...
How the US Dollar Became an International Weapon of War
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US took a number of extraordinary steps to cut Moscow out of the international financial system. The country i...
Why the UAE Is Pumping $35 Billion Into Egypt
16 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The United Arab Emirates recently unveiled a stunning $35 billion investment in Egypt, snapping up development rights in an area on the Mediterranean ...
Industrial Policy and the Forgotten Side of Alexander Hamilton
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to the blockbuster musical, Alexander Hamilton has become a modern cultural icon. He's known as an architect of the federal system, building ou...
Why We're Now Living in The Golden Age of Snack Food
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Want some Doritos? For years, you might have only been able to get one or two snack chip flavors. But right now on Amazon, you can find numerous varie...
Moderna's CFO on How to Allocate Capital in Big Pharma
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The pharmaceutical space is characterized by extreme uncertainty. You never know what drugs are going to pan out. The lead time for development is ext...
Lots More on Why Japanese Stocks Are Surging
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Japanese stocks are suddenly soaring, with the Nikkei 225 hitting an all-time high this week after decades of languishing. Warren Buffett has been upp...
Celsius CEO Explains How They Win in Energy Drinks
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Go to any deli or 7-Eleven these days and you're sure to see a gigantic, technicolor wall of beverages. There are juices and sodas and CBD-infused bev...
Introducing: The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly
05 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...
Anat Admati on How to Never Bail Out Banks Again
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're coming up to the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which sparked a fresh conversation about the role of banks in the ...
How to Put a Price on a Bird: the Forgotten Science of Economic Ornithology
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is for the birds — and one bird in particular. Flaco, an Eurasian eagle-owl, escaped from the Central Park Zoo last year and went on to...
What Really Goes Into the Fed's Favorite Measure of Inflation?
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve has a goal of getting inflation down to 2%. But of course, there are a lot of different ways of measuring inflation. Many people k...
How the Rise of 'Pod Shops' Is Reshaping the Way Markets Trade
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The hedge fund industry has gone through multiple evolutions. Investing styles go in and out of fashion as market conditions change. Strategies that...
How Ukraine Delivers the Mail During Wartime
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you order something from Ukraine right now, be it a T-shirt or a vintage Christmas ornament, chances are it will arrive on time and in good shape. ...
A Longtime Aerospace Analyst Questions Boeing's Future
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Troubles at Boeing just keep piling up, along with existential questions about the company's future. Not only is Boeing enormously important to US man...
This Is What's Hard About Building a US Domestic Battery Industry
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The growth of electric vehicles has heightened concerns about China's current dominance in lithium-ion batteries. So as part of the Inflation Reductio...
Lots More on What Earnings Are Telling Us About Prices Now
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, Corbu managing director Samuel Rines came on Odd Lots to discuss what exactly companies were saying about why they were raising prices. His...
The Quiet Revolution in How We Rescue Banks
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A little less than a year ago, the US financial system was rocked by its first major banking drama since 2008. While the crisis was eventually contain...
How a Second Trump Administration Could Upend US-China Relations
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2016, Donald Trump campaigned on a platform that included a much harsher stance toward trade with China, and the US-China Trade War was a bi...
How Surging US Oil Output Is Being Moved and Stored
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
US oil production has surged to an all-time record of more than 13 million barrels produced per day. But where's all that crude actually going? And ho...
NY Community Bancorp's Problems in the Rent-Stabilized Market
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The last week saw a major plunge in shares of New York Community Bancorp after the company revealed challenges in its lending to multi-family resident...
How Businesses Decide Exactly Where to Set Up Shop
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We know that companies think carefully about where they open stores. They might look at things like how many people pass by the location on a day-to-d...
Lots More on Why Farmers Across Europe Are Furious
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, we've seen a wave of protests recently from angry farmers. So what's driving the activity? On this ep...
How Global Shippers Are Dealing With a Worsening Red Sea Crisis
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Attacks on ships in the Red Sea continue to escalate. What started with narrow strikes by Yemeni-based Houthi militants against Israel-linked vessels ...
Mark Cabana on the Fed, QT and Treasury Funding
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's a busy week for the bond market with a meeting of the Federal Reserve and the release of the US Treasury's quarterly refunding statement. While a...
Big Take DC: Economists May Be Using Bad Data to Make Big Decisions
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is a special edition of Bloomberg's Big Take DC podcast, featuring an interview with our own Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway. They sp...
Lots More with Claudia Sahm
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Lots More, we speak with Claudia Sahm, the former Federal Reserve economist and founder of Sahm Consulting, about the recent uptick in th...
Why the Short Volatility Trade Is Back and Bigger Than Ever
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are plenty of one-off risks at the moment, but it seems like betting on pretty much nothing happening is more popular than ever. Investors are i...
Lots More on China's Moves to Create a Dollar Alternative
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For years, people have been talking about the end of US dollar dominance or how some other currency could usurp its role around the world. But when it...
The Anonymous Meme Account Chronicling Credit Market Craziness
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The past few years have been pretty wild for anyone working in credit, the business of selling and trading corporate debt. First you had the pandemic,...
Brevan Howard's Top Economist Sees Three Huge Macro Turning Points Under Way
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, there's a lot of hope and optimism that the US economy is on a path towards a soft landing. Nonetheless, there are aspects of the current l...
The Moment That Boeing's Culture Started To Rot
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On Jan. 5, the plug door of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 blew out mid-flight, forcing the plane into an emergency landings with a large hole in fusela...
US Oil Is Booming and It's Upending Global Markets
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 2010s, US shale players were producing oil like crazy, with no concerns about profitability. Then the legs were kicked out from the indus...
The Massive Economic Impact If China Invades Taiwan
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan has become a top-of-mind concern in defense and corporate circles in recent years. But what would such an attack...
Lots More on What's Hot at JPM's Health Conference
12 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For anyone interested in investing in the health-care space, JPMorgan's annual Health Care Conference has become one of the most important events of t...
Harley Bassman on Why the Big Moves in the Bond Market Are Done
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Harley Bassman, a.k.a. the Convexity Maven, is a legend among bond investors. He worked at Merrill Lynch, where he invented the MOVE Index that measur...
Lael Brainard on What Still Can Be Done to Lower Prices
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The mood about the US economy feels very different right now than it did a year ago. At the start of 2023, almost everyone seemed to be predicting rec...
This Is the Impact of Billions Flowing Into Private Credit
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Private credit is now so big that it's rivaling more traditional forms of lending and fueling a debate about whether this relatively new asset class p...
Attacks in the Red Sea Are Reconfiguring Global Trade Again
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A string of recent attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels on commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea to the Suez Canal have forced global shippers to ...
The Top 10 Things We Learned on Odd Lots in 2023
01 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's no secret that one of the fun things about Odd Lots is that it covers a lot of different topics, from the plumbing of the financial system to cri...
Brad Jacobs Plans to Make Billions in the Building Supply Industry
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Brad Jacobs has founded multiple multi-billion dollar companies in his career. He turned United Waste into part of a major trash collection conglomera...
The Odd Lots AMA Episode: Joe and Tracy Answer Your Questions
25 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, our listeners called in with their questions. They ranged from the personal, like "What happened with Tracy's coal?" to the editorial...
Why So Many People Got This Year's Economy Wrong
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This time last year, almost everyone was predicting a recession would engulf the US economy in 2023. One of those forecasters was was Anna Wong, chief...
Introducing: Bloomberg News Now
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bloomberg News Now is a comprehensive audio report on today's top stories. Listen for the latest news, whenever you want it, covering global business ...
A County in Maryland Came up With a New Way of Building Affordable Homes
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When people think of publicly funded housing, they tend not to think about modern-looking apartments with all kinds of amenities. But a county in Mary...
Lots More on Shohei Ohtani's $700 Million Contract
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week was a huge one for the soft landing camp. The inflation data came in cool and the Federal Reserve indicated its confidence that it can begin...
How Salad Chain Sweetgreen Figures Out Its Next Product to Sell
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sweetgreen, the popular fast food salad restaurant, recently announced that it was eliminating all use of seed oils, in favor of higher quality oils s...
Drybar Founder Alli Webb on the High Cost of Fast Growth
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of the defining brands of the 2010s was Drybar. The popular chain of blow dry salons helped define the so-called experience economy, leading to nu...
China Made a Chip Breakthrough That Shocked the World
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Both the Trump administration and the Biden administration made moves to constrain China's ability to build out an advanced homegrown technology indus...
Another Part of Commercial Real Estate Is in For a Reckoning
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to commercial real estate, a lot of attention is obviously paid to offices. But it's not the only sector facing strains. Apartment build...
What Dead Malls Tell Us About the Future of Commercial Real Estate
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a lot of worry over the future of commercial real estate — especially the outlook for office buildings — in light of higher interest ...
Lots More with Brad Setser
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Argentina has always been interesting from an economic and financial markets perspective, to put it mildly. And it's gotten even more interesting foll...
Josh Younger Explains How Banks Really Manage Rate Risk
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The rate banks pay on savings accounts hit the headlines earlier this year, when an outflow of deposits contributed to the collapse of Silicon Valley ...
A Stunning Lawsuit Could Change How Realtors Get Paid
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, a Missouri jury found that real estate brokers colluded to artificially inflate and fix their own commissions, and as a result, ordered th...
Goldman's Jan Hatzius Believes the Hard Part Is Over
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Going into 2023, the conventional wisdom was that a recession was likely in store. Instead, it didn't happen. What we saw is continued disinflation, e...
Magic the Gathering's Creator Wants to Create an Even Better Game
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since bursting onto the scene in the mid-1990s, Magic the Gathering has become one of the most popular games of all time, with millions of players c...
Here's What's Going Wrong in the US Offshore Wind Industry
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The effort to decarbonize the US electricity grid involves a range of technologies and power sources. Solar is part of the solution, nuclear may also ...
Why Private Credit's Been Booming Even as Interest Rates Go Up
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's no secret that the market for private credit has boomed in recent years. The surprising thing is that it has continued to do so even as interest ...
The Fed's Michael Barr on Real-Time Payments and the Basel Endgame
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Barr is a busy man these days. As the Federal Reserve's vice-chair for supervision, he's looking at ways of making the financial system safer ...
Lina Khan Is Sending a Message to the Private Equity Industry
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since becoming chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan has arguably taken a novel approach to antitrust, one that incorporates broader ideas ...
What's Been Happening With the Iranian Stock Market
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2020, we spoke with Maciej Wojtal, a London-based fund manager who specializes in Iranian stocks. This market is one of the most unfamiliar in...
The OCC’s Michael Hsu on the Big Risks Facing Banking Businesses Right Now
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, we saw the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank following a run on deposits and big losses on their portfolios of bo...
Introducing: Elon, Inc.
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At Bloomberg, we’re always talking about the biggest business stories, and no one is bigger than Elon Musk. In this new chat weekly show, host David...
The Economics of Building a Childcare Business
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Finding good, high quality childcare has been a growing challenge in the US for a long time. The pandemic only made the situation worse, with all kind...
Dimensional Co-CEO Gerard O'Reilly on the Future of Fund Management
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dimensional Fund Advisors is one of the fastest growing providers of mutual funds and ETFs. It was founded in the early 1980s, built upon University o...
What the Summer of Strikes Means For The Broader Economy
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This special episode of Odd Lots was recorded live at the Bloomberg Screentime festival earlier this month in Los Angeles, where the summer strikes by...
The Incredible Rise of the Celsius Energy Drink
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For awhile, it was Red Bull that was synonymous with energy drinks. Then Monster Energy came along and turned into one of the best performing stocks o...
What's Really Standing in the Way of a Nuclear Renaissance?
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US is taking a fresh look at nuclear power. After a dearth of construction, and de-commissioning of working nuclear plants, people are talking, ye...
Lots More with Gregory Brew
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
So far, the war between Israel and Hamas has had only a mild impact on world markets. Oil prices are higher than they were prior to the terrorist atta...
This Is What an 8% Mortgage Means For the Housing Market
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mortgage rates have surged over the last couple of years. But surprisingly to some, actual home prices in the US have been resilient. This has created...
How An Old Banking Regulation May Have Driven The 1970s Inflation
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There remains a lot of anxiety over whether inflation in the US will gather steam all over again. Part of this worry stems from the fact that there we...
NY's Cannabis Rollout Could Destroy a Legal Entrepreneur
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When New York legalized recreational cannabis for adults, it didn't just want to fling the gates wide open for anyone to take part. Instead it specifi...
JPMorgan's Jay Barry on the Big Selloff in Bonds
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the past week, the bond market has experienced a historic selloff. Yields on benchmark 10-year US Treasuries soared towards 4.9% while those on 30-...
Jigar Shah on the Pathway to Clean, Cheap, and Abundant Energy
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jigar Shah is the head of the Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy and thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, he has hundreds of billions ...
Austan Goolsbee on the 'Golden Path' to a Soft Landing
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can a soft landing be achieved? This is still a wide open question, given the highly uncertain macro environment. On the one hand, you have had a cont...
The Fed's Tom Barkin On the Impact of Higher Interest Rates
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US economy has so far withstood the effects of higher interest rates a lot better than expected. Unemployment is still at historic lows, even whil...
Lots More with Matt Levine and Mike Mackenzie
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For those who can't get enough Odd Lots, we're now offering you... "Lots More." This new podcast show, appearing on Fridays, will see hosts Tracy Allo...
The Real Pain From Rate Hikes May Still Be on the Way
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve has hiked rates in rapid fashion, yet the evidence of their impact is scarce. Inflation is still hot (though it has come down quit...
Why the Degrowth Movement Is Having a Moment
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to economics, there are a bunch of different schools to choose from, but pretty much all of them are focused on boosting growth. Except,...
Why Insurers Are Pulling Out of High-Risk Areas
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This year has seen a spate of insurance companies announcing that they're leaving markets like Florida and California, citing the increased risk of na...
Steven Rattner on the UAW Strike and the Challenges of Bidenomics
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When the US auto industry needed a restructuring or bailout in 2009, the Obama administration tapped former banker and investor Steven Rattner to lead...
Morgan Housel on the New Way We Think About Money
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When generations undergo any kind of collective life-changing event, it shapes how people think about money -- and how they think about spending and i...
Oaktree's Wayne Dahl on Credit Markets Right Now
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In theory, the Federal Reserve operates by tightening the supply of credit. Or at least making it more close. Yet so far, despite the rate hikes, the ...
Lots More With Neil Dutta
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For those who can't get enough Odd Lots, we're now offering you... "Lots More." This new podcast show, appearing on Fridays, will see hosts Tracy Allo...
Senator Chris Coons on How to Fix Our Response to Avian Flu
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, consumers around the country experienced an explosion in the price of eggs, in part due to an outbreak of avian flu. Since then, egg prices...
Bill Gross on the End of the Great Bond Bull Market
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Gross became known as the Bond King during his legendary, multi-decade run at Pimco, eventually growing the company to manage trillions of dollar...
What Rising Rates and Surging Insurance Prices Are Doing to Real Estate
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In some respects, the real estate market has been surprisingly resilient in the face of rising interest rates. Homebuilders have generally performed w...
Self-Driving Cars Might Finally Be For Real This Time
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A decade ago, there was a lot of hype about self driving cars. In fact, there was more interest in self-driving cars than there was in electric vehicl...