For more than three years, Jan Marsalek has been on the run. He was the jet-setting COO of Wirecard, the German company that imploded after a financial fraud scandal. But now, Western intelligence and security officials are saying Marsalek had likely been a Russian spy for nearly a decade. WSJ's Bojan Pancevski tells the tale of the investigations into Marsalek's covert operations.



Further Listening:

- Wirecard's Missing $2 Billion 



Further Reading:

- He’s Wanted for Wirecard’s Missing $2 Billion. He’s Now Suspected of Being a Russian Spy.

- U.K. Says Wirecard’s Marsalek Worked With Five Suspected Russian Spies 

- How Wirecard Went From Tech Star to Bankrupt 



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'The Ultimate Confidence Trickster': The Double Life of a Tech Exec

The most important stories about money, business and power. Hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson, with Jessica Mendoza. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal.

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Jim Simons pioneered a revolution in financial trading, embracing a computer-oriented, quantitative style in the 1980s well ahead of Wall Street. Following Simons’ recent death, WSJ’s Gregory Zuckerman unpacks his legacy from financial algorithms to philanthropy. 



Further Reading: 

-How Did Jim Simons’s Firm Make $100 Billion? He Told His Secrets to Our Reporter 

-Jim Simons, a Pioneer of Quantitative Trading, Dies at 86 

-The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution 



Further Listening: 

-Charlie Munger: Curmudgeon, Sage and Investing Legend 

-Rise and Revolt at Renaissance, Part 1 

-Rise and Revolt at Renaissance, Part 2 

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The Life of One of Wall Street’s Greatest Investors

If the upcoming presidential election could be summed up by a song, what would it be? And will voters cast their ballots based on a bright future or a gloomy one? In a live-taping before an audience at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson sat down with WSJ political reporter Molly Ball to discuss these topics and more. To watch the video, check out the episode on Spotify.
Further Reading:
-Biden and Trump, In Two Speeches, Speak to Two Visions of America 
-Arizona is Booming, But Restless Voters Feel Downbeat About Economy
Further Listening:
-Trump Allies Draft Plans to Rein in the Fed
-Why the Fed Is Steering Away From Rate Cuts 
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Live from Seattle: A Weird Economy + Election = ??

For six decades, one man has been largely responsible for creating North Korea’s propaganda machine: Kim Ki Nam. He served all three North Korean dictators and is the architect of many of the myths that have helped to keep the Kim family in power. Last week, Kim Ki Nam died at the age of 94. WSJ’s Timothy Martin reports on his controversial legacy. 



Further Reading: 

-The Original Mastermind Behind North Korea’s Cult-of-Personality Propaganda Dies 

-Kim Jong Un’s New Look Is More Man Than Superhuman 



Further Listening:

-How North Korea’s Hacker Army Stole $3 Billion in Crypto 

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North Korea’s Propaganda Mastermind

When FTX collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022, many customers never thought they'd see their money again. But FTX's assets have rebounded. WSJ’s Andrew Scurria unpacks why FTX will have more than enough money to fully repay customers and many creditors.



Further Reading:

- Crypto Exchange FTX Is the Rare Financial Blowup That Will Repay Victims in Full 



Further Listening:

- The Trial of Crypto’s Golden Boy 



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How FTX Found Billions to Repay Customers

Before Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, there was Lotte Bjerre Knudsen.

In the 1990s, the young scientist at the Danish drug company Novo Nordisk was trying to unlock the key to a new technology for treating Type 2 diabetes. To her bosses, Lotte’s project, which focused on a hormone called GLP-1, looked like a distraction. 

But as Lotte fought to save her diabetes project from the chopping block, she couldn’t have imagined how much of an impact her breakthrough would have. Her work would pave the way for a hit drug called Ozempic. And it would unleash a new class of blockbuster drugs, pitting two companies in a race to become the world’s first trillion-dollar pharmaceutical company by market cap.

Listen to Part 1 of “Trillion Dollar Shot” now.
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'The Ultimate Confidence Trickster': The Double Life of a Tech Exec

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