This is the 15th episode of 16 Minutes, our news show where we cover the top headlines, the a16z Podcast way: what’s real / what’s hype; what's interesting from our vantage point in tech. This week (after a brief hiatus for our annual innovation event and November holidays), we cover the following news... in conversation with Sonal Chokshi:

1. use of alternative data in credit underwriting -- Five federal regulatory agencies (the Federal Reserve Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Controller of the Currency, and the National Credit Union Administration) recently issued a joint statement on the use of alternative data in credit underwriting; what does this news really indicate, and what are the implications for both consumers and companies? -- with Seema Amble and Rex Salisbury;
2. big annual shopping days and retail trends -- From Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Singles' Day and Prime Day and seemingly unprecedented sales, where are we in the shift from offline to online commerce, on the so-called "death of retail", and on other tech (chatbots, logistics) changing shopping? -- with Jeff Jordan and Connie Chan.

• credit, banking, data:
  • use of cash-flow data in underwriting credit: empirical findings via FinRegLab
  • a brief history of credit cards (or, what actually happens when you swipe) [animated video] with Alex Rampell
  • on managing risk and uncertainty with Angela Strange
  • on non-bank financial firms (aka fintech is eating the world) by Angela Strange
  • on money, risk, and software [podcast] with Alex Rampell
• retail, logistics, etc.:
  • the golden era of productivity, retail, supply chains [podcast] with Marc Levinson, Hanne Tidnam, and Sonal Chokshi
  • where's my stuff, the lowdown on logistics and ops [podcast] with Jeff Jordan
  • online to offline 2.0 - experiments and examples from China with Connie Chan
  • online to offline (O2O) commerce by Alex Rampell 
  • the tipping point (e-commerce version) by Jeff Jordan
  • so you want to compete with Amazon? by Jeff Jordan

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