Odd Lots

Tension between the US and China has been building for some time. But so far this has been limited to issues of trade. The US has imposed tariffs on China. It's imposed restrictions on technology exports. In turn, China has imposed some of its own tariffs, and also limited the export of things like rare earth metals. But historically speaking, many hot wars have their roots in some kind of trade-related tensions between nations. So...

Today, the cost of energy — things like electricity, or gas, or heating oil — is considered an essential piece of economic data. But it turns out that for much of America's history, we've been overlooking a crucial economic figure: the cost of firewood. For decades, firewood was the dominant energy source powering the US economy. And yet there aren't really any official statistics about firewood prices. After all, how w...

People talk all the time about the potential for huge turning points in history. And they've been talking about the possibility of the US losing its dominant position in the international financial order for some time. So far it hasn't really happened, but there are plenty of people who think that the Trump's focus on tariffs and higher deficits could mark a sea change in the appetite for dollar assets. In this episode we speak wit...

Probably the most controversial proposal from New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is his promise to freeze the rent on a substantial chunk of rent-stabilized units in the city. There are concerns that this will cause a major downshift in housing development and that landlords that are heavily exposed to rent-stabilized units will be driven deeper into distress. But then separately there are major real estate own...

There’s a long history of US presidents putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, but the techniques have often been subtle or quiet in some way. Under President Trump, attacks on the Fed have risen to a whole new level. And it’s not just Trump that’s called on Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates. Other members of his administration (along with allies in Congress) have been hammering him both o...

Incumbent NYC Mayor Eric Adams didn't run in the Democratic primary. But he'll be on the ballot in November, running as an independent against Zohran Mamdani and probably a couple of other candidates as well. So what is his vision for addressing affordability? What can the Mayor do about crime, trash, and other quality of life issues. On this episode, we're joined by Eric Adams to talk about the city's future and his plan for secur...

If there's one thing that lawyers do a lot of, it's spending a prodigious number of hours going through documents. And they're often very well compensated for this work. So if there's one area where AI can obviously be highly disruptive, it's law. Documents that used to take hours to scan or format might be dealt with instantly. Finding relevant prior case law is becoming much faster, thanks to today's most advanced models. On this...

Rohit Chopra is a former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In this episode, we speak with him about the current status of the CFPB under the Trump administration, and Rohit's experience while working at the bureau, including decisions made by regulators during the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and others. Rohit frames his experience as one where ...

When socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic party's nomination for NYC mayor, top business leaders experienced a bout of hysteria. That's according to Kathy Wylde, the president and CEO of the non-profit organization the Partnership for New York City. Founded in 1979, the organizati...

For investors, geopolitical risks are always lurking as a factor that could upend trades for obvious reasons. When war breaks out, it's crucial to have some kind of understanding of what it will mean for various markets (such as oil or grain) and how long the conflict can persist. But is there any way to analyze these things scientifically? Many people are paid by investors to try to do exactly this....

Multi-strategy hedge funds, composed of lots of individual portfolio managers, have seen assets under management boom in recent years, thanks to astonishingly consistent returns throughout the cycle. If you're one of the PMs, the money can be incredibly lucrative. But job security is fickle, and it's easy to lose your place on the team. So how do you actually get your seat and keep it? On this episode, we speak with Brian Yelvingto...

What do young professionals in New York City actually think about money and capitalism? According to our guest Emily Sundberg, creator of the Feed Me newsletter, there is a foreboding sense that nobody is coming to save them. End times are coming. AI will take all the jobs. There's a limited time to "secure the bag." In this live episode, recorded in New York City in June, Emily talks about how this translates into consumption and ...

Every day we're inundated with headlines that are seemingly unbelievable. Multiple major wars are ongoing. Politics is erratic. Markets are scrambling everyone's brains. So how should we live and feel good? How should we think about the world around us, and the various perceived risks out there. In yet another episode from our live Odd Lots special in New York City last month, we speak with famed author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the s...

Stocks plunged after the April 2 "Liberation Day," in one of the worst drawdowns in the market's history. Since then, however, we're basically back to all-time highs and things have been pretty calm in the market. On this episode, recorded live onstage at our June 26 event in New York, we speak to Nomura cross-asset strategist Charlie McElligott, about what's been driving the rally. He says he's seen "relentless" selling of volatil...

Okay, that's quite a title but we think it's justified! In this special episode — recorded live onstage at our June 26 event in New York City — we bring together some of the best thinkers we know when it comes to the US Treasury market. US government bonds form the backbone of global financial markets, and are the "risk-free" rate to which all other rates are benchmarked. But recently, there's been concern about who wil...

Robinhood, the company known for first introducing commission-free trading, has now become a behemoth with all kinds of different business lines including credit cards, savings vehicles, crypto, and wealth management. This week it's announced further expansion with news that it's launching its own chain, as well as tokenized stock trading (that for now is only available in the EU). On this episode, we speak with founder and CEO Vla...

For awhile there was just MicroStrategy (which has since been renamed as Strategy.) It started buying Bitcoin, and then raised money to buy more Bitcoin, and the stock has done phenomenally well, despite the company not doing much else beside holding Bitcoin. But now it has spawned numerous copyca...

Think of a biotech company and most people will think of a business trying to come up with cures and treatments for human illnesses. There's not a lot of discussion about companies trying to do the same for animals, insects, or even... crustaceans. And yet, healthy animals are a key part of the ecosystem and important for our food supply. In this episode we speak to Annette Kleiser, CEO of Dalan Animal Health, which has developed t...

Iran is a huge country with a sizable stock market. And yet, years of sanctions and other restrictions mean it’s tough to even look up its stock prices (much less invest there.) In this episode, we catch up with Maciej Wojtal, CEO and CIO of AmtelonCapital, an Amsterdam-based fund that specializes in Iranian stocks. We talk about what the past week has been like for the market, what he’s hearing from people on the groun...