Money Stuff: The Podcast

Katie and Matt discuss high school quiz bowl, Bill Ackman’s closed-end fund again, the rich history of CEFs trading at a discount, economically attractive places to work, preferred performance fees, private credit vibes, accepting illiquidity for high returns, marking private credit to market, NAV arbitrage, assassination markets, fine print and resistance to innovation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss a legendary lost Money Stuff podcast episode, Paramount buying Warner Bros., rights offerings, LBO risks, deal discipline, breakup fees, BCRED, OBDC II, twisting arms at Blackstone, Credit Suisse toxic asset bonuses, liquidity premiums, short memories, XOVR and SpaceX liquidity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Katie are on vacation! There will be a new episode of Money Stuff in your feeds on March 6th. In this episode from June 2025, Matt and Katie talk with their guest, Cliff Asness of AQR, about momentum, meme stocks, value, market timing, publishing, academics, explaining factors, how much to charge for alpha, private assets and machine learning. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie and Matt discuss the SpaceX/xAI merger, the Kardashev scale, Twitter debt, index fast-tracking, people not being worried about SpaceX liquidity, closed-end fund activism, DAT discounts, the Bitcoin crash, Strategy, the week that software died, SaaS private equity, AI disruption and private credit funding stability.

Katie and Matt discuss Morgan’s Pub, SpaceX/xAI merger talks, a $1.5 trillion valuation for Twitter, astrology, numerology, the Year of the Horse, Tether’s mountain lair, gold vault tourism, how to make a few more billion dollars, LMEs, law-firm conflicts and investment banking pep talks.

Katie and Matt discuss the weather, Jamie Dimon’s whereabouts, Guinness latte art at the JPMorgan pub, debanking, memecoin logic, Gas Town, horses as a unit of money, memecoin IP, moonshot pay incentives, 24ish/7ish trading, blockchain blockchain blockchain, and supervising the computers on the cozy night shift.

Katie and Matt discuss Beast Industries, immersion in cool liquids, crypto treasury pivots, credit card rate caps, PowerPoint tips and drug trial insider trading.

Katie and Matt discuss Wyclef Jean, the backlash against proxy advisers, AI proxy voting, writing proxies for LLMs, things that annoy Jamie Dimon, private equity recruiting, banking loyalty oaths, the long path to private equity, home ownership, housing affordability, brownstones in Hoboken and stock buybacks.

Katie and Matt answer listener questions about performative earnings calls, hedge funds as a calling, favorite quotes, proxy advisers, ETF mechanics, sports betting market structure, 10b5-1 plans and the thrill of horse dancing.

Katie and Matt do not discuss themes for 2026 but do discuss closing certainty in merger agreements, revocable trusts, personal guarantees, doing deals over the holidays, double-pledging, amortization of past-due subprime auto loans, angling for cooperation agreements, Enron as a role model, nuclear fusion, access to significant capital and leveraged ETF training videos.

Katie and Matt discuss the Warner Bros. bidding war, negotiating against yourself, having your dad buy companies for you, Bleenberg, breakup fees, trillion-dollar IPOs, getting in on the third floor, orbiting data centers, tech capex, rocket explosion securities fraud lawsuits, alternative consumer lending and private credit regulation.

Matt and Katie discuss corporate holiday parties, shareholder meetings, the Strategy narrative arc, Strategy's dollar reserve, an ouroboros of newsletters, digital asset treasury companies in indexes, the brief beautiful life of Katie's bird, Bill Ackman's closed-end fund plans, CEFs vs. ETFs, Howard Hughes, buffer ETFs and the ETFization of structured notes.

In an episode from July, Katie and Matt talk with Gappy Paleologo of Balyasny Asset Management about gardening leave, what makes a good quant researcher, factor models, the social function of hedge funds, AI and journalists as portfolio managers.

Katie and Matt discuss Batman, Labubu binary options, sneaker manipulation, publicly traded private credit, OBDC, OBDC II, private credit marks, Frank's email list, indemnification and cellulite butter.

Katie and Matt discuss ASMR, 50-year mortgages, Fannie and Freddie, housing as a positional good, indentured servitude, assumable and/or portable mortgages, Matt’s mortgage rate, optimal exercise of prepayment options, proxy adviser competition, shareholder proposals, good governance, index fund voting, hedge fund talent constraints, gardening leave, the Black Death and the AI Ph.D. pipeline.

Katie and Matt discuss tariffs, skeptical questions, nondelegation, major questions, reimbursement, the Metsera deal, amylin targeting, Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal, alleged fraud at First Brands, factoring due diligence, the blockchain and short memories in the credit market.

Katie and Matt discuss Halloween costumes, AI capital spending, hybrid financing, K-cup JVs, investment grade private credit, the metaverse (?!?), the OpenAI reorganization, OpenAI capital needs and governance, Elon Musk’s pay package, Tesla succession and getting cut off at the JPMorgan office pub.

Katie and Matt discuss JPMorgan’s new headquarters, in-office pubs, in-office gyms, the JPMorgan District, specialist fine-tuning of AI models, pls fix memes, crushing investment banking analysts’ hopes and dreams, the craft of building LBO models, credit cockroaches and indirect lending.

Katie and Matt discuss late-cycle credit accidents, dancing while the music plays, banks vs. private credit, the Nobel Peace Prize, institutional-grade prediction markets, 23-hour-a-day stock trading, picking off drunks at 3 a.m., digesting news outside of market hours, windows of liquidity and the rhythm of being a human.

Katie and Matt discuss finance book parties, the ICE/Polymarket deal, understanding and pricing the future, the Grossman-Stiglitz paradox, prediction-market spillovers, sports quants, tokenization, the OpenAI/AMD deal, discounting the AI future, AI pricing power, Cathie Wood’s emotional maturity, the ETF ecosystem and the Midnight Madness puzzle hunt.