Big Take DC

The National Weather Service is predicting that vast swaths of the US will see above-average temperatures this summer. That’s weighing on the wallets of small businesses across the country, who already operate on thin profit margins.

On today’s Big Take podcast, DC host Saleha Mohsin does the math on this economic hit, hears from business owners trying to weather it, and unpacks what the government could do about it with Bloomberg...

Omaha, Nebraska, is billionaire Warren Buffett’s hometown. A quirk in the state’s election law also means it could wind up deciding the 2024 presidential election.

On this episode, Big Take DC host Saleha Mohsin talks to Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb and Bloomberg White House reporter Josh Wingrove, who traveled to Nebraska, to understand the fight to secure Omaha’s vote and the possibility of Warren Buffett entering ...

The US public’s trust in the media, and the government, is markedly low. A recent Gallup poll found only about 30 percent of Americans trust the media — and Pew Research found only 16 percent trust their government.

Bloomberg’s Jason Leopold is using records to try to change that. He’s filed over 9,000 requests through the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA — a Cold War era law meant to ensure the right to transparency from the U...

Tires and doors falling off mid-flight. A top US official stranded because of a 737 jet maintenance issue. Boeing is facing the ire of US lawmakers, scrutiny from its key regulator, and pressure from Wall Street ahead of an earnings report — all as it struggles to rebuild trust with passengers after a string of crises.

On this week’s Big Take DC, Saleha Mohsin digs into Boeing’s rise and fall with reporter Julie Johnsson, gl...

A Japanese company’s bid to buy US Steel has sparked a fight with the United Steelworkers union — and put the company at the center of the 2024 presidential contest.

Today on the Big Take DC, reporters Joe Deaux and Josh Wingrove trace why the deal came to a halt, how the company fits into Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s brands of political nostalgia, and why the fate of this deal could have an outsized impact on the election.

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After years of letting the private tax e-filing industry run the show, the IRS is finally piloting an online tool that’s supposed to make tax season easier – and free – for thousands of taxpayers in a dozen states. 

On this episode of The Big Take DC podcast, we explore how the idea got off the ground, who can use it, and whether the program could ever compete with the powerful private tax-filing industry.

Corrects date the...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is trying to navigate a tricky economy – stubborn inflation and persistent fears of a recession. Now, two men hoping for a second term in the White House are drawing the central bank into the political fray.

“We can expect that things are going to get a little spicy,” Bloomberg’s Kate Davidson, who covers the Fed, joins the Big Take DC podcast to talk about the battle to maintain the cent...

Donald Trump faces four criminal trials amounting to 91 felony counts, and three civil cases. None of this has fazed his base as he runs for election. “If he was in jail, I sure would vote for him,” said Ralph Hunter, a South Carolina resident. He told the Big Take DC podcast that while he doesn’t like Trump “as a person,” he was impressed with his presidency.

Trump’s electability is intact – but his finances are another sto...

Fifteen states voted in the presidential primary contest on Super Tuesday, marking a decisive point in the election cycle. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign notched a clear victory as he marches down the path to clinching the Republican nomination. For President Joe Biden, between Super Tuesday and his State of the Union on Thursday, it’s officially the beginning of campaign season.

Is Trump’s grip on the GOP’s futur...

Two years after the Kremlin's forces invaded Ukraine, US-led sanctions have certainly changed Russia's economy – but they haven’t stopped the war.

The US Treasury’s chief sanctions economist contends the effort is working. But an analyst who worked at Russia’s central bank before fleeing in 2022 counters that the economy is very much alive. In this episode of the Big Take DC, we find out about Russia’s “brain drain,” how an econom...

American voters are so disillusioned by their options in the presidential election that pollsters have come up with a term for it: “Double-hater.” These are people who don’t like President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, who leads the race for the GOP nomination. And yet, when asked by the Big Take DC podcast if an outsider candidate could break through in 2024, Ralph Nader, who ran for president outside the two major p...

China’s economy has been in rough shape, and the government is trying to address it. But there’s another threat on the horizon: the US election.

During their presidencies, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump backed policies that drove the US and China further apart. Now, they're both campaigning for re-election on continuing on that trajectory.

In this episode, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy A...

America’s use of sanctions has grown by almost 1,000% since 9/11. So why isn’t Congress giving the office in charge of them more resources?

Today on the Big Take DC podcast, host Saleha Mohsin talks to John Smith, a former director of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Bloomberg National Security editor Nick Wadhams about OFAC’s scrappy operation and why lawmakers aren’t giving it more to work with.

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When the US borrows money, just like any borrower, it needs to pay its loans back with interest.

The national debt right now is $34 trillion and rising. Soon, America will need to spend more each year paying interest on the debt than it spends on national defense.

Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, and Bloomberg reporter Liz McCormick join the Big Take DC to discuss the US government’s debt s...

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has been in the news almost nonstop for successfully negotiating a new contract for union members and, most recently, endorsing President Joe Biden for re-election.

But that endorsement is at odds with many rank-and-file union members who support Donald Trump. And Fain's next industry battle could be much harder.

In setting his sights on electric vehicle makers like Tesla and r...

Last year, as the US Federal Reserve kept raising interest rates to rein in inflation, Chair Jerome Powell kept pointing to one category of data that was guiding its decision: The labor market. But it’s possible that the labor market data-of-choice may have been faulty.

Having a clear picture of how Americans are really doing is crucial during a presidential election cycle. Bloomberg’s Saleha Mohsin talked with Claudia Sahm,...