Today's episode is a special edition of Bloomberg's Big Take DC podcast, featuring an interview with our own Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway. They spoke to Big Take host Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News, about how the US has managed to avoid a recession — and whether the Federal Reserve’s decisions were based on reliable data. It also features an interview with Claudia Sahm, an ex-Fed economist and contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. To hear more from Big Take DC, subscribe to their show.

Today's episode is a special edition of Bloomberg's Big Take DC podcast, featuring an interview with our own Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway. They spoke to Big Take host Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News, about how the US has managed to avoid a recession — and whether the Federal Reserve’s decisions were based on reliable data. It also features an interview with Claudia Sahm, an ex-Fed economist and contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. To hear more from Big Take DC, subscribe to their show.

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

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

Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway analyze the weird patterns, the complex issues and the newest market crazes. Join the conversation for interviews with the most interesting minds in finance, economics and markets.

Odd Lots

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

On Bloomberg&rsquo;s Odd Lots podcast Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway explore the most interesting topics in finance, markets, and economics. Join the conversation every Monday, Thursday, and Friday.

Big Take DC: Economists May Be Using Bad Data to Make Big Decisions

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/cd27e5cf-71e0-4e83-89e8-b1060167493f/transcript

We're in an era of megadeals, with Goldman Sachs reporting a record year for big deal volumes as companies scramble to compete with AI. Gene Sykes has seen multiple deal cycles come and go over his multi-decade career. The co-head of mergers and acquisitions has worked on famous transactions like Comcast's purchase of Universal and Disney's buyout of Pixar. In addition to being "the most-influential M&A banker you've never heard of," as New York magazine has put it, he has also spearheaded Los Angeles's successful bid to bring the Olympic Games to the city in 2028. In this conversation, recorded live at the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, we discuss how a city pays for a big event like the Olympics, and parallels between the early 2000s TMT environment and now.

Read more:
Port of LA Foiled Around 120 Million Cyberattacks Last Month
Goldman’s Snider Says Fears of US Earnings Bubble Are Misplaced

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

We're in an era of megadeals, with Goldman Sachs reporting a record year for big deal volumes as companies scramble to compete with AI. Gene Sykes has seen multiple deal cycles come and go over his multi-decade career. The co-head of mergers and acquisitions has worked on famous transactions like Comcast's purchase of Universal and Disney's buyout of Pixar. In addition to being "the most-influential M&amp;A banker you've never heard of," as New York magazine has put it, he has also spearheaded Los Angeles's successful bid to bring the Olympic Games to the city in 2028. In this conversation, recorded live at the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, we discuss how a city pays for a big event like the Olympics, and parallels between the early 2000s TMT environment and now.
Read more: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-17/port-of-la-foiled-around-120-million-cyberattacks-last-month?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=odd_lots&amp;utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Port of LA Foiled Around 120 Million Cyberattacks Last Month</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-18/goldman-s-snider-says-fears-of-us-earnings-bubble-are-misplaced?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=odd_lots&amp;utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Goldman&rsquo;s Snider Says Fears of US Earnings Bubble Are Misplaced</a>
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A Goldman M&A Banker Helped Bring the Olympics to Los Angeles

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/3c42dc4e-ca08-46cf-b2c6-b4c90112084e/transcript

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

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 &mdash; auto dealers, contractors, the like &mdash; 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 &ldquo;Main Street Millionaires&rdquo; 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: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-11/tech-s-nouveau-riche-suffer-sudden-wealth-syndrome-as-ai-pay-explodes?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=odd_lots&amp;utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Tech&rsquo;s New Rich Are Suffering From &lsquo;Sudden Wealth Syndrome&rsquo;</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-09-17/san-francisco-s-ai-wealth-boom-skirts-engineers-as-openai-anthropic-ipos-near?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=odd_lots&amp;utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Jobless Tech Workers Are Being Left Out of San Francisco&rsquo;s AI Boom</a>
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There's a Mind-Boggling Number of Rich People in America

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/3715cbfc-b4cf-4840-bf1b-b4c8010bc9bb/transcript

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 Himself
Iran 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 Newsletter
Join the conversation:discord.gg/oddlots

Francis Fukuyama's essay &ldquo;The End of History?&rdquo; was published in the summer of 1989, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The essay's argument &mdash; that liberal democracy would not only defeat communism, but that its partisans might, in victory, miss the &ldquo;courage, imagination, and idealism&rdquo; that defined the ideological battle &mdash; 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 &ldquo;The End of History?&rdquo; 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 &ldquo;The End of History&rdquo; brought about, how he uses AI, and what, if anything, will come after liberalism.
Read more: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-09/trump-s-2026-midterm-strategy-puts-himself-at-center-of-gop-campaign?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=odd_lots&amp;utm_content=article" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">Trump&rsquo;s Midterm Plan Centers on Tax Cuts, MAHA and Himself</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-09/iran-ready-for-more-intense-war-and-won-t-relent-official-says?srnd=phx-india?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=odd_lots&amp;utm_content=article" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">Iran Ready to Escalate War Trump Says Will End After US Election</a>
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What Francis Fukuyama Is Seeing at 'The End of History'

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/ae8e06da-4095-4c0f-8fdb-b4c0013c37f4/transcript

Big Take DC: Economists May Be Using Bad Data to Make Big Decisions

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