Odd Lots

Odd Lots episodes:

• 04.19.2024

  What AMLO's Legacy Means For Mexico's Upcoming Election

  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 Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, is the odds-on favorite. But what is AMLO’s legacy exactly?...

  
• 04.18.2024

  How The American Workforce Got Hooked on Adderall

  Over the last few years, users of the popular ADHD drug Adderall have been frustrated by regular shortages in getting their prescriptions filled. Various regulatory and supply chain factors have contributed to the inability of producers to keep up with...

  
• 04.15.2024

  How Electric Utilities Will Handle Booming AI Datacenter Demand

  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 even without needing much more electrical power. But all that's changing now and a...

  
• 04.13.2024

  Introducing Money Stuff: The Podcast

  The audio companion to Bloomberg Opinion’s beloved Money Stuff column hosted by its author Matt Levine, “whose deadpan style mixes technical elucidation and wit” (NY Times). Once a week, Matt and his friend, Bloomberg News reporter and TV host, Katie...

  
• 04.12.2024

  Lots More on America's Electrical Components Crisis

  In 2021 and 2022, the US economy experienced historic shortages of many different goods. All kinds of consumer, construction, and high-tech components were tough to come by. Since then, most of these shortages have eased or gone away, but there...

  
• 04.11.2024

  Tractor Supply's CEO on How It Escaped the Post-Pandemic Curse

   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 could go to the office, and so on. Since then, many of these companies...

  
• 04.08.2024

  Why a Former Freight Broker Is Making a Major Bet on Mexico

  US imports from Mexico are surging. Former President Trump's tariffs on China, as well as the renegotiated USMCA treaty, have encouraged supply chains to move to North America. Then Covid hit, and that re-energized interest in "nearshoring" or "friendshoring" as...

  
• 04.05.2024

  Steve Eisman on the Three Big Macro Stories of Our Time

  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 role in Michael Lewis' book The Big Short. These days his investing approach...

  
• 04.04.2024

  Why Savita Subramanian Thinks Stocks Can Keep Going Higher

  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 skepticism that equities could go any higher. The S&P; 500 had already...

  
• 04.01.2024

  Why the CRE Urban Doom Loop May Still Be Coming

  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 someone. But there may be an even deeper challenge for...

  
• 03.29.2024

  Lots More on the Parabolic Surge in Cocoa Prices

  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 fans around the world. But why have prices more than doubled in the past few...

  
• 03.28.2024

  The Mega Corporations That Control What Americans Eat

  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 handful of agricultural giants that have grown to dominate the food industry. Companies like Walmart...

  
• 03.26.2024

  Sal Mercogliano on the Baltimore Bridge Collapse

  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 port. The collision caused the bridge to dramatically collapse, sparked a search and rescue mission for...

  
• 03.26.2024

  Listen Now: The Big Take

  The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon. See omnystudio.com/listener...

  
• 03.25.2024

  The Economist Who Believes AI Will Be Great for the Middle Class

  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? Will it make more people's livelihoods obsolete, causing even greater inequality than we have now?...

  
• 03.22.2024

  Lots More on the Big Can Kick in Commercial Real Estate

  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 trillion market for commercial real estate. Fast forward to today and the doomsday scenario...

  
• 03.21.2024

  Why Home Insurance Markets in California and Florida Imploded

  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 carriers simply announce that they're abandoning certain states. So, what's behind the mess? Why isn't...

  
• 03.18.2024

  How the US Dollar Became an International Weapon of War

  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 immediately was hit with a slew of sanctions. It was cut off from the SWIFT payment...

  
• 03.16.2024

  Why the UAE Is Pumping $35 Billion Into Egypt

  The United Arab Emirates recently unveiled a stunning $35 billion investment in Egypt, snapping up development rights in an area on the Mediterranean coast. The announcement has since paved the way for Egypt to float its currency, easing a currency...

  
• 03.15.2024

  Industrial Policy and the Forgotten Side of Alexander Hamilton

  Thanks to the blockbuster musical, Alexander Hamilton has become a modern cultural icon. He's known as an architect of the federal system, building out a strong government with the capacity for both borrowing and spending. But there's another side of...

  
• 03.14.2024

  Why We're Now Living in The Golden Age of Snack Food

  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 varieties, from barbecue to nacho cheese, spicy sweet chili, or Late Night...

  
• 03.11.2024

  Moderna's CFO on How to Allocate Capital in Big Pharma

  The pharmaceutical space is characterized by extreme uncertainty. You never know what drugs are going to pan out. The lead time for development is extremely long. Market size is inherently unknowable. And the regulatory and pricing climate is constantly changing....

  
• 03.08.2024

  Lots More on Why Japanese Stocks Are Surging

  Japanese stocks are suddenly soaring, with the Nikkei 225 hitting an all-time high this week after decades of languishing. Warren Buffett has been upping his stakes in Japanese companies and activist investors are taking an interest in the market for...

  
• 03.07.2024

  Celsius CEO Explains How They Win in Energy Drinks

  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 beverages and caffeinated energy drinks as far as the eye can see. The wall...

  
• 03.05.2024

  Introducing: The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly

  The Deal, hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, features intimate conversations with business titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs who reveal their investment philosophies, pivotal career moves and the ones that got away. From Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals,...

  
• 03.04.2024

  Anat Admati on How to Never Bail Out Banks Again

  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 wider economy. Last year's banking drama culminated in the Federal Reserve unveiling a new...

  
• 03.01.2024

  How to Put a Price on a Bird: the Forgotten Science of Economic Ornithology

  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 become a local celebrity, delighting New Yorkers with his feathered adventures across...

  
• 02.29.2024

  What Really Goes Into the Fed's Favorite Measure of Inflation?

  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 know about the Consumer Price Index, and the various ways it can be...

  
• 02.26.2024

  How the Rise of 'Pod Shops' Is Reshaping the Way Markets Trade

   The hedge fund industry has gone through multiple evolutions. Investing styles go in and out of fashion as market conditions change. Strategies that work become crowded with investors, which can mean they stop working as well. The hottest thing these...

  
• 02.23.2024

  How Ukraine Delivers the Mail During Wartime

  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. Not only is the country's mail service still operating, even as it...

  
• 02.22.2024

  A Longtime Aerospace Analyst Questions Boeing's Future

  Troubles at Boeing just keep piling up, along with existential questions about the company's future. Not only is Boeing enormously important to US manufacturing, but it's also a major defense contractor for the US government and a big employer, which...

  
• 02.19.2024

  This Is What's Hard About Building a US Domestic Battery Industry

  The growth of electric vehicles has heightened concerns about China's current dominance in lithium-ion batteries. So as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the US government is spending money and providing tax credits to companies that are attempting to build...

  
• 02.16.2024

  Lots More on What Earnings Are Telling Us About Prices Now

  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 argument was that in the post-pandemic environment, with all its associated peculiarities and one-off disruptions,...

  
• 02.15.2024

  The Quiet Revolution in How We Rescue Banks

  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 contained, and only three lenders ended up collapsing, the experience re-ignited an ongoing conversation...

  
• 02.12.2024

  How a Second Trump Administration Could Upend US-China Relations

   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 big deal while he was in office. But the Biden administration has quietly continued...

  
• 02.09.2024

  How Surging US Oil Output Is Being Moved and Stored

  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 how is it being handled and stored? On this episode, we speak with Steven...

  
• 02.08.2024

  NY Community Bancorp's Problems in the Rent-Stabilized Market

  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 residential developers. So what went wrong at this bank? And what does it say about this...

  
• 02.05.2024

  How Businesses Decide Exactly Where to Set Up Shop

  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-day basis or how easy it is to access the site by car. But...

  
• 02.02.2024

  Lots More on Why Farmers Across Europe Are Furious

  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 episode of Lots More, we speak with Lorcan Roche Kelly, a former cattle farmer in Western...

  
• 02.01.2024

  How Global Shippers Are Dealing With a Worsening Red Sea Crisis

  Attacks on ships in the Red Sea continue to escalate. What started with narrow strikes by Yemeni-based Houthi militants against Israel-linked vessels has now expanded to ships carrying a wide range of freight, including oil and liquified natural gas. The...

  
• 01.31.2024

  Mark Cabana on the Fed, QT and Treasury Funding

  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 lot of people have been focusing on when the Fed will cut benchmark...

  
• 01.30.2024

  Lots More with Claudia Sahm

  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 the US unemployment rate. We discuss the implications for the Sahm Rule, the early recession indicator...

  
• 01.30.2024

  Big Take DC: Economists May Be Using Bad Data to Make Big Decisions

  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 spoke to Big Take host Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News, about how the US has managed...

  
• 01.29.2024

  Why the Short Volatility Trade Is Back and Bigger Than Ever

  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 increasingly reaching for a wide variety of derivatives to bet against volatility. Those derivatives...

  
• 01.26.2024

  Lots More on China's Moves to Create a Dollar Alternative

  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 comes to global finance and trade, the dollar is as dominant as...

  
• 01.25.2024

  The Anonymous Meme Account Chronicling Credit Market Craziness

  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, which changed working patterns across Wall Street. Then you had a surge in deal...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Brevan Howard's Top Economist Sees Three Huge Macro Turning Points Under Way

  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 landscape that are unsettling. Inflation has come down, but there's significant debate...

  
• 01.19.2024

  The Moment That Boeing's Culture Started To Rot

  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 fuselage. Miraculously, nobody was hurt or killed, but it could have been...

  
• 01.18.2024

  US Oil Is Booming and It's Upending Global Markets

  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 industry, causing a massive bust and massive oversupply. In 2021 and 2022, it looked like...

  
• 01.15.2024

  The Massive Economic Impact If China Invades Taiwan

  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 actually look like? And what would be the economic impact to world if it actually...