Odd Lots

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Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway explore the most interesting topics in finance, markets and economics. Join the conversation every Monday, Thursday, and Friday

10 hr ago

There's a Mind-Boggling Number of Rich People in America

In 2014, the economists Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick were asked by the Treasury to conduct a study on the tax burden of private business owners. It was tricky to figure out how much these sorts of business owners — auto dealers, contractors, the like — actually owed in taxes: After Reagan's 1986 tax reforms, pass-through businesses and other accounting tricks became widespread enough to obscure this class of wealthy Americans hiding in plain sight. The research they conducted led to their new book The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There, and one of their central findings is that there are about three million private business owners who have an average wealth of around $25 million. They call this group “Main Street Millionaires” and their influence on the economy and politics in the US is considerable. We speak with Zidar and Zwick today about how they measured the actual number of rich people in America by sifting through reams of tax forms, why income inequality started to rise in tandem with the growing number of pass-through businesses, and how it's possible that the collective revenue of the nation's dentists far exceeds that of the NFL. Read more: Tech’s New Rich Are Suffering From ‘Sudden Wealth Syndrome’ Jobless Tech Workers Are Being Left Out of San Francisco’s AI Boom Only http://Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 day ago

What Francis Fukuyama Is Seeing at 'The End of History'

Francis Fukuyama's essay “The End of History?” was published in the summer of 1989, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The essay's argument — that liberal democracy would not only defeat communism, but that its partisans might, in victory, miss the “courage, imagination, and idealism” that defined the ideological battle — lives on as one of the most cited pieces of political theory in the last three decades. In his new memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man, he revisits “The End of History?” and for today's episode he talks to us about how his essay's argument has evolved in a world now defined by the intense technological change brought on by AI and by the many electoral defeats liberal democracy has suffered as of late. We also talk about how the Internet and social media are helping fuel the listlessness that “The End of History” brought about, how he uses AI, and what, if anything, will come after liberalism. Read more:Trump’s Midterm Plan Centers on Tax Cuts, MAHA and HimselfIran Ready to Escalate War Trump Says Will End After US Election Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots Subscribe to the Odd Lots NewsletterJoin the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4 days ago

OpenAI President Greg Brockman on Doing Business in the Wake of Hugging Face

According to OpenAI President Greg Brockman, the models that escaped their sandbox and hacked into Hugging Face's servers had yet to go through alignment training. That they were able to break free of the testing environment was not a surprise to OpenAI, but what has happened since has forced them to rethink some things. Today, we talk to Brockman about what OpenAI has learned since the hacking incident and we discuss why he thinks the conversation around model development has to change. We also talk about how OpenAI collaborates and communicates with competitors like Anthropic, how he thinks models should be evaluating what counts as “good writing,” and, of course, we get his thoughts on how seriously we should be worried about the AI doomsday scenarios. Read more:OpenAI Is Open to Slowing Cutting-Edge AI, CEO Sam Altman Tells StaffTech’s New Rich Are Suffering From ‘Sudden Wealth Syndrome’ Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots Subscribe to the Odd Lots NewsletterJoin the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
6 days ago

Robert Friedland on the World's Monumental Shortage of Copper

Copper demand is booming, with the metal surging another 15% this year. Copper demand has always been tightly linked to economic activity, but now it's in overdrive, thanks to data centers, electric cars, and the global push to reindustrialize everywhere. Copper prices are also rising because it's caught in the crossfire of trade wars and resource nationalism; the US is expected to place tariffs on the refined metal. According to today's guest, Robert Friedland, the founder and executive co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, we're not even close to having enough copper for what's coming. We talk to Friedland about opening and running copper mines around the world, and what he's learned in his 40-year long career in mining (which includes a cameo from Steve Jobs). See Odd Lots live in Los Angeles!Read more: Copper Steadies With Dip-Buying From Funds, Chinese Industry Only http://Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlotsJoin the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
11 Sept

Why Bridgewater's CIO Says AI's Human Extinction Risk Is Real

Greg Jensen was one of the earliest backers of both OpenAI and Anthropic, and at Bridgewater Associates, where he is the managing chief investment officer, he leads the hedge fund’s AI strategy. As an early adopter of the technology, he has a lot of thoughts on where things stand right now in terms of model capability and safety, as well as the broader economic impacts of AI. Just recently, he published an op-ed in the New York Times that proposes a “token tax,” to help mitigate the job losses that AI might cause. (Bridgewater predicts as much as 18% of US jobs might be displaced in five years.) We last spoke with Jensen in 2023, and so much of what we discussed then (like AI hallucinations) seems quaint now that models have come so far — capable of lying, cheating, and much worse. On this episode, Jensen tells us how Bridgewater is currently using AI, why there needs to be a stronger AI regulatory state, and why it feels like the AI discourse is starting to resemble the months before Covid-19 took over the world in 2020.See Odd Lots live in Los Angeles! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
10 Sept

The Rise of Organized Retail Crime at Big Box Stores

If you walk into a local pharmacy in New York City, more likely than not, lots of the merchandise is locked behind closed doors as a measure to mitigate shoplifting. So how big is the “retail shrink” problem really? And why are stores willing to sacrifice customer experience to protect their inventory? According to today’s guest, the Home Depot’s VP of Asset Protection Scott Glenn, shoplifting is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to retail theft. What is really bedeviling companies like the Home Depot is something called organized retail crime — heists by criminal outfits that seek to nab large quantities of merchandise that eventually ends up in the black market. Today, we speak with Glenn about the in-and-outs of organized retail crime, the retail shrink problem, and what stores are doing to bring down theft right now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
7 Sept

Why Money Launderers Love $100 Bills

Hardly anyone nowadays seems to carry much cash, never mind carrying around a bunch of $100 bills. So why does the amount of physical cash in circulation — especially big denominations like the $100 bill — keep increasing? There's a pretty obvious answer. All those dollars are being laundered and used by criminal enterprises. In this episode, we speak with journalist Oliver Bullough, author of Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won, about this cash paradox. We discuss how cartels balance their books by trading drugs for farm equipment, the gigantic parallel financial system that undergirds global money laundering networks, and why money laundering resembles Renaissance-era banking. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4 Sept

Why Laser Beams Are the Hottest New Tech in Defense

Our guest today is Colonel Sanders. More precisely, we speak with Wayne Sanders, a retired US army colonel who is currently senior defense research analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. During his military career, Sanders specialized in cybersecurity and weapon systems research and his work for BI has recently focused on directed energy weapon systems — better known as lasers. Just a few decades ago, programs like Star Wars, the Reagan-era missile defense system, seemed like a pipedream; today lasers can shoot down missiles and much more. Sanders tells us about the physics problems researchers had to solve to make laser weapons a reality, why we still don't have laser guns, what makes a weapons system "exquisite," the economic costs that factor into battlefield decisions, and the unique supply chain constraints that affect laser development. Read more: Weary US Sailors Lay Bare War’s Strain During Thailand Shore Leave German Navy Tests Ballistic Missile for the First Time at Sea Only http://Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Trailer

Introducing: Our Town

Our Town from Bloomberg’s Big Take podcast follows residents of Gainesboro, Tennessee, after a group of far-right Christians moves in with plans for a radical social experiment.Listen to Episode 1 on the Big Take. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Make sense of the world with one essential conversation, every week. Mishal Husain, one of Britain's best interviewers, brings her signature blend of curiosity and tenacity to weekly conversations with world leaders, business titans, and cultural icons, revealing who they really are and how they see the world changing around them. Subscribe today at Bloomberg.com/audio or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. For annotated transcripts of Mishal's conversations head to Bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

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Society & Culture
When sports, business and culture collide, there’s often a deal to be made. Join Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg correspondent Jason Kelly as they get the inside track from corporate titans, sports champions and game-changing entrepreneurs on investing, strategy, reinvention and the ones that got away. The Deal is a Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals series that’s passionate, relaxed, insightful and inspirational. If you think you know these icons, prepare to be surprised. Hosts: Alex Rodriguez is chairman and chief executive of A-Rod Corp, an investment firm that backs startups and partners with global companies across real estate, sports and entertainment. While best known as a fourteen-time All-Star and World Series champion with the New York Yankees, Rodriguez is now an owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx sports teams and an on-air analyst for Major League Baseball. Jason Kelly is the chief correspondent of Bloomberg Originals. During his two decades at Bloomberg, Kelly has served as executive editor of Bloomberg Television, hosted Bloomberg Businessweek on television and radio, and also hosted Power Players and Next in Sports series. He’s also the author of two books, The New Tycoons, about the global private equity industry, and Sweat Equity, an inside look at the business of fitness.

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Business
Bloomberg Radio host Barry Ritholtz speaks to the people and ideas that shape markets, investing and business.

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Investing
Foundering is an award-winning, serialized podcast from the journalists at Bloomberg Technology. Each season, Foundering brings you inside a different high-stakes drama from the technology industry, where its companies are wielding unprecedented capital and power.

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Tech News
Listen for today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes. Each morning, hosts Nathan Hager and Karen Moskow bring you the latest on US politics, foreign relations, business, financial markets and global economics. The show is recorded at 5 AM ET each weekday, so you get the freshest reporting on the stories that matter. Get informed from Bloomberg's 3,000 journalists and analysts. Listen and subscribe to Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition.

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Business News
How did Russian pranksters trick a top government official? What happens to documents flushed down White House toilets? The answers exist. The trick is getting the government to disclose them. By law, nearly every move federal agencies make—every email, every memo, every receipt—belongs to the public. The key to gaining access is the Freedom of Information Act. It’s the tool that forces the government to open its files…though rarely without a fight. From Bloomberg & No Smiling, Disclosure is a podcast about cracking open those secrets. Join FOIA reporter Jason Leopold and First Amendment attorney Matt Topic for a guided tour of explosive details, bureaucratic foibles and details that powerful people never wanted you to know. For access to episodes on Apple early and ad-free, subscribe at www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/podcasts.

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Government

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Joe Weisenthal

Host
Tracy Alloway

Host
Greg Brockman

Guest
Robert Friedland

Guest
Greg Jensen

Guest
Scott Glenn

Guest
Oliver Bullough

Guest
Wayne Sanders

Guest
Darrell Duffie

Guest
Adam Posen

Guest

Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway explore the most interesting topics in finance, markets and economics. Join the conversation every Monday, Thursday, and Friday

Channel

Bloomberg
Creator

Bloomberg
Years Active

2015 - 2026
Episodes

1.3k
Rating

Clean
Copyright

2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
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Odd Lots
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Bloomberg L.P.