The Wall Street Skinny
Join Kristen and Jen, two former Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers investment bankers, as they break down complex financial deals, market moves, and stories into what actually matters. Featuring conversations with top investors and deep dives that people can't stop sharing, this is the show Wall Street is obsessed with.
Episodes
Elon Musk Engineered SpaceX IPO "Perfectly": But What Comes Next When 95% of Stock Unlocks?
Send us Fan MailAfter the largest IPO in history (SpaceX, ticker SPCX, priced at $135), only about 5% of the company — roughly $83 billion — is actually free to trade. Insiders are locked up, the banks that underwrote the deal can't lend shares to short sellers, and index funds are being forced to buy as SpaceX joins the Nasdaq-100 and the Russel. In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, Je
Mindy Kaling's "Not Suitable for Work": Our Hot Takes on the Show About Investment Banking in NYC We've Been Waiting For
Send us Fan MailMindy Kaling's new sitcom "Not Suitable for Work" just dropped, and we have thoughts. We are two Wall Street veterans breaking down everything the show gets right — and wrong — about what it actually looks like to show up as a first-year analyst at a bulge bracket investment bank, navigate office politics (and romance!), and try to build a life in New York City on a
How Google Front-Ran SpaceX with a Record Breaking $85 Billion Equity Raise
Send us Fan MailWhile everyone's been fixated on the SpaceX IPO, Google quietly pulled off the largest equity offering in history—roughly $85 billion—and basically front-ran the entire market to do it. In this episode of The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen break down why a cash-printing machine like Alphabet would raise money at all, and why they did it in the most fascinating way poss
How Spotify Turned a Free Product into a $100 Billion Company
Send us Fan MailWe've done the finance of Industry, the finance of Succession, the finance of Belle Burden's Strangers — but we've never done the finance of CREATORS. So when Spotify invited us to their Investor Day, we knew we had to sit down and ask the question every aspiring musician, podcaster, and Instagram creator is obsessing over: in a world where everyone wants to be a cre
SpaceX Just Rewrote the Rules of the Stock Market (And Most People Had No Idea)
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we dig into one of the biggest market questions hiding behind the hype around mega IPOs: what happens to passive index investors when companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI go public? We ask why the VIX and major indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq look calm, while single-name stocks like Tesla are showing much higher implied volatility, and why the sprea
Ex-Morgan Stanley Bankers: "Strangers" How Much Belle Burden's Husband Was Actually Earning
Send us Fan MailNo one is talking about the insane thing that's happened to Big Law partner compensation over the past decade — and how it stacks up against Wall Street.In this deep dive we broke down EXACTLY what's going on. What started as an attempt to quantify how much Belle Burden's husband — from the cultural phenomenon Strangers — was actually earning during their marriage, a
Ex-Morgan Stanley Bankers: "Strangers" by Belle Burden Part 1 | Our Initial HOT TAKES
Send us Fan MailTwo weeks ago, one of the most powerful women on Wall Street asked us to weigh in on Belle Burden's bombshell memoir: "Strangers". As two women who've lived and worked in every world this book touches — from raising three kids in New York City to working on Wall Street to growing up in Massachusetts and spending summers on Martha's Vineyard — we're uni
Hedge Funds Want the Equity in Your Home, feat. Tacora Capital Founder Keri Findley
Send us Fan MailIn this episode we dig into the state of the American consumer's balance sheet, which on paper isn't broke but is increasingly "boxed in." We walk through eye-opening Federal Reserve data: total household debt hit an all-time high of $18.8 trillion in Q1 2026 (up $4.6 trillion since pre-COVID), credit card balances peaked at $1.25 trillion with rates north of 20
$53 Billion Hedge Fund Chief Strategist: The Next Market Shock Is Hiding in Plain Sight
Send us Fan MailWe sat down with Elizabeth Burton, the new Chief Strategist at Fortress, one of the world’s biggest and most respected hedge funds, to ask what actually matters most in this market — and her answer might surprise you.This is the same Elizabeth Burton who, back in 2020, made the call that inflation would be sticky, not transitory — while much of the market, and even the Fed, was sti
Burry Left in a Hurry! The Loophole GameStop Could Use to Pull Off Buying eBay (10x its Size)
Send us Fan MailMichael Burry just dumped all his GameStop shares. eBay reportedly deactivated Ryan Cohen's account. And the $56 billion "takeover" GameStop pitched on CNBC? It would actually have eBay shareholders paying for most of it themselves. We're back to break down the latest twists in the GameStop–eBay drama — and why this deal is structured unlike almost any takeover
GameStop Just Bid $56 Billion for eBay. What is ACTUALLY Going On????
Send us Fan Mail🚨 EMERGENCY EPISODE: GameStop just made an unsolicited $56 billion bid for eBay, and the math is NOT mathing. After watching CEO Ryan Cohen's bizarre live CNBC interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin (where he kept deflecting questions with answers like "it's on the website"), we hit *record* immediately to break this down.Kristen, our resident investment banking, PE,
Every New Fed Chair Has Crashed the Market. A New One is Coming May 15th
Send us Fan MailJerome Powell's term as Fed Chair ends May 15th, and his likely successor Kevin Warsh is poised to walk into the most fractured Fed since 1992. In this episode, we're breaking down what actually happened at Powell's final meeting, who the dissenters were and why, and what it tells us about the Fed Warsh is about to inherit.But the bigger question we're wrestling
Financial Times Reporter TELLS ALL: Sujeet Indap on Why Private Credit is Worse than Credit in 2008 | Caesars Part 3/3
Send us Fan MailIn Part 3 of our Caesars Palace Coup series, we're back with Sujeet Indap of the Financial Times — co-author of the definitive book on the $30 billion LBO disaster — to connect the dots between 2008's creditor-on-creditor violence and the private credit tremors rattling markets right now. Caesars itself is back on the auction block, with Tilman Fertitta's Golden Nugg
Restructuring 101: How Private Equity Pits Debt Investors Against Each Other | Caesars Part 2/3
Send us Fan MailThis is Part II of our Caesars Palace deep dive, and honestly, this is where things get truly unhinged. If Part I was the setup — the $30 billion LBO, the financial crisis, and the private equity firms scrambling to keep the lights on — this episode is the masterclass in what happens when the knives come out. We're breaking down the mechanics of distressed debt investing, rest
Private Equity Knows Something Private Credit Doesn't | Caesars $30B LBO is the Playbook | Caesars Part 1/3
Send us Fan MailPrivate credit is the crisis everyone's watching, but the real story -- and the one no one has been focused on -- is what private equity is doing behind the scenes.In Part 1 of our 3-part series, Kristen and Jen break down the $30 billion leveraged buyout of Caesars by Apollo and TPG, the deal that became the blueprint for what we now call "creditor-on-creditor violence&q
Morgan Stanley's Head & CIO of Private Equity Solutions: The Ultimate Deep Dive into PE Investing
Send us Fan MailBuckle up, because this week we're sitting down with Neha Champaneria Markle, who runs the Private Equity Solutions group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.Neha walks us through the entire private equity landscape and answers the questions you've been dying to ask an insider including: - Is "AI is going to destroy software and therefore private equity"? -
Wall Street is Watching Something More Concerning than Oil
Send us Fan MailEveryone's been freaking out about oil and stocks, but the scariest thing this past week actually happened in bonds, and almost nobody was talking about it. Last week the US Treasury held three auctions that were utter disasters, with dealer takedown more than double its 12-month average — worse than the tariff panic of April 2025. We get into what that means and why it matter
Private Credit: Even Apollo's Trapped Investors. Here's Exactly What You Need to Know
Send us Fan MailPrivate credit is all over the headlines — and all over your social media feed. Apollo just gated redemptions, Moody's stripped KKR's credit fund of its investment grade status, and Bill Maher is talking about it on late night TV. But what's actually going on beneath the panic? In this episode, we break down the alphabet soup of fund structures — publicly traded BDCs
Private Credit UPDATE: Is this 2008 all over again?
Send us Fan MailIf you read the headlines about Private Credit, it feels like we're on the verge of another Global Financial Crisis. So, are we? In this Private Credit "state of the union" episode, we break down the structural differences between today's private credit market and the pre-GFC banking system, why the "private" in private credit makes it so hard to know
Head of Investor Relations at $3 Billion Hedge Fund Tells All | Capital Raising 101
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we sit down with Kate Baumann, Head of Investor Relations at Empyrean Capital Partners (a $3 billion event-driven, multi-strategy hedge fund), LIVE from iConnections in Miami. Here's the thing nobody tells you: the amount of money a hedge fund manages — its AUM — is the single biggest driver of how much everyone at that fund gets paid. The 2% management fee is
Jobs, Oil, and the Ellison's LBO of Warner Brothers | TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said / She Said"
Send us Fan MailWe're back for the ninth installment of He Said She Said, our regular crossover series with Dan Nathan and Guy Adami of CNBC's Fast Money. We recorded just after the open Friday morning, breaking down a February jobs report that caught many off guard -- 92,000 jobs lost, massive downward revisions to prior months, and mounting evidence of an organic economic slowdown tha
Iran Is Shaking the Oil Markets. What the Top Commodities Traders Are Thinking Right Now
Send us Fan MailIn this special emergency episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we sat down with Andreas Laskaratos, CEO of AB Commodities Group, a global oil and gas shipping and trading firm with operations spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Andreas is one of the few people in the world who operates across both the physical and financial sides of the commodities complex, and he's been a
LIVE from Miami: Is Private Credit Fundraising OVER?
Send us Fan MailWe sat down with Ron Biscardi, the CEO and co-founder of iConnections, live at Global Alts Miami to get the skinny on what's happening with fund managers and allocators in real time. Last year, private credit was the undisputed darling of investment strategies. Now, on the heels of Blue Owl headlines and concerns about cracks within the private credit markets, headlines seem t
Paramount Outbids Netflix for WBD & Middle East Military Action Fallout | Emergency Episode
Send us Fan MailKristen and Jen tackle two major stories in this double emergency episode. First, Kristen breaks down latest update in the Warner Bros saga — how Paramount outbid Netflix with a $31/share offer, why Netflix walked away, and what the deal means financially. They cover the cursed history of Warner Bros. M&A deals, the staggering leverage Paramount is taking on (potentially the la
Industry S4E8 "Both/And" | Where does Industry go from here?
Send us Fan MailIt's a bittersweet day at The Wall Street Skinny, where we are recapping the SEASON FINALE!! While this one is lighter on finance than most episodes this season, we still dig into the mechanics of closing out a massive short position without spooking the tape. We also break down how hedge fund fees actually work — the industry-standard "two and twenty" structure wher
TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said / She Said" - Blue Owl's Private Credit Fiasco
Send us Fan MailWe teamed up with Guy Adami and Dan Nathan to discuss two major developing market stories ahead of meeting in Miami for the iConnections Global Alts conference. The first topic is stress in private credit, centered on Blue Owl’s retail-focused semi-liquid vehicle (Blue Owl Capital Corp II) facing heavy redemptions and gating, highlighting the liquidity mismatch between retail redem
Industry S4E7 "Points of Emphasis" | Hostile Takeovers
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we're breaking down Season 4, Episode 7 of Industry, "Points of Emphasis" — and we have a lot of feelings. We walk you through all the major plot developments, from Whitney's attempted escape and his terrifying confrontation with what appears to be his foreign handlers, to Yasmin's ruthless political maneuvering to bring down Lisa Dern and
Goldman Sachs’ Head of Alts for Wealth, Kristin Olson: What No One Tells You about Investing in Private Markets
Send us Fan MailKristin Olson, Goldman Sachs’ Head of Alternatives for Wealth, sits down with us for the most candid, no-fluff conversation about private equity and private credit we've ever had. .She walks us through the very real benefits of investing in private capital while also answering the cynical questions: do “retail” investors in private equity products like evergreen funds and perp
TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said She Said" | 100 Year Bond + Paramount / WBD Update
Send us Fan MailIn the sixth installment of He Said, She Said on the Risk Reversal Podcast, Kristen and Jen are joined by CNBC's Dan Nathan and Guy Adami to talk century bonds, Paramount / Warner Brothers update, and the existential angst surrounding AI. The episode kicks off with a listener question about Alphabet’s recent $32 billion debt issuance, including a rare 100-year sterling bond, p
Industry S4E6 "Dear Henry": Why This Might Be the Greatest Episode of Industry Ever Made
Send us Fan MailRecap & Breakdown of HBO's Industry season 4 episode 6,Harper launches her assault on Tender at the Alpha Conference, delivering a devastating short thesis complete with a DCF analysis and sum-of-the-parts valuation. We break down every piece of the finance, from enterprise value vs. equity value, what a price target of zero really means, and the real-world fraud parallels
The Skinny On: SAAS-pocalypse, misleading jobs data, & Japanese equities breaking records, feat. Macabacus' CEO
Send us Fan MailWe're back with The Skinny On...three wild stories: confusing jobs data, Japan's equity market rally, and why everyone's freaking out about AI killing SaaS companies.Confused by the latest Non-Farm Payrolls report? So were we. The blowout headline number was nothing compared to the massive downward revisions to 2025's data. Yet somehow, bonds still sold off and
TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said She Said" | SaaSpocolyspe + Elon Musk's SpaceX / xAI Merger
Send us Fan MailKristen and Jen are joined by Guy Adami and Dan Nathan of CNBC's Fast Money for the fifth installment of "He Said, She Said." The conversation kicks off with the so-called "SaaS Apocalypse" — the brutal selloff across software stocks — and unpacks how the market narrative shifted in just one week from "when will AI spending pay off?" to "what
Private Infrastructure Investing 101 feat. Billionaire Founder / CEO: Mike Dorrell of Stonepeak
Send us Fan MailIn this Infrastructure 101 episode, we sit down with Mike Dorrell, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Stonepeak, to unpack how infrastructure investing evolved from a niche corner of finance into one of the most important asset classes shaping the global economy. We walk through the origins of modern infrastructure investing --- from Macquarie’s early toll road and airport deals in A
Industry S4E5 Eyes Without a Face: The Thing Was Nothing
Send us Fan MailSternTao goes to AccraShop our Self Paced Courses:Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERESubscribe to our Substack: https://substack.com/@thewallstreetskinny
TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said She Said" | Dollar Collapses, Hedge Funds and Gambling vs. Investing
Send us Fan MailJen Saarbach & Kristen Kelly join the guys to discuss the decline in the US dollar, market sentiment and Gen Z's proclivity for gambling.Shop our Self Paced Courses:Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERESubscribe to our Substack: https://substack.com/@thewallstreetskinny
Industry S4E4 "1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn" | The "Leap of Faith" / Most Disturbing Episode Yet
Send us Fan MailPerhaps the most painful and disturbing episode of Industry yet, this episode asks uncomfortable questions about the way easy access --- whether it be to high finance, drugs, or illicit content online --- reduces human experience to abstraction in a way that causes us all to be disassociated from our own lives. We see shifts in power in the C-suite at Tender that transform our tria
The Skinny on Policy Chaos and Volatility: Time to Sell? feat. Alicia Levine of BNY Wealth
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we’re joined by Alicia Levine, Head of Investment Strategy at BNY Wealth, for a wide-ranging conversation on what’s driving markets right now — and what investors should actually do about it. We start by breaking down the real difference between wealth management vs. asset management, then zoom out to the biggest macro theme of the moment: policy volatility across
TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said She Said" | Japan’s Bond Market Blows Up, Netflix Goes All-Cash
Send us Fan MailThis week on He Said, She Said, CNBC Fast Money stars, Guy Adami and Dan Nathan together with Kristen and Jen from The Wall Street Skinny dive into one of the most overlooked market shocks of the year: a massive, seven standard deviation move in the Japanese bond market. Jen breaks down why the long-assumed era of low inflation and easy monetary policy in Japan may be ending—and wh
Industry S4E3 "Habseligkeiten" | The Threesome Episode
Send us Fan MailWe are BACK with one of the most dense, finance-forward, darkly entertaining episodes of Industry YET. With a title that evokes the theme of "belongings", this episode is all about who belongs in which rooms, who belongs to whom when it comes to control, and what are our characters willing to sacrifice to ultimately get what they want.We see Eric and Harper's short-o
Netflix Changes WBD Offer to All Cash | Emergency Update
Send us Fan MailNetflix just announced it plans to revise its Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition offer to an all-cash deal — but why? Wasn’t the bidding war already over? And why did Netflix stock drop after the announcement?In this episode, Kristen breaks down the latest twist in the Netflix–Warner Bros.–Paramount saga. Paramount is now suing Warner Bros. Discovery, claiming the Netflix offer is
Citi's Global Head of Research, Lucy Baldwin | Covering Private Companies, Crypto, and what AI means for Analysts
Send us Fan MailLucy Baldwin, the Global Head of Research at Citigroup, is leading one of the most consequential shifts in how institutional research is done today. In this episode, we unpack how the sell-side research role is being completely redefined, moving beyond spreadsheets and earnings models to incorporate AI, storytelling, and differentiated data sets. Lucy explains why today's best
TWSS x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami: "He Said She Said" | Powell Under Pressure, Credit Card Cap Concerns & Real Estate Supply Issues
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of 'He Said, She Said', Guy Adami, Kristen Kelly & Jen Saarbach dive into the theme of unintended consequences. The discussion begins with Jerome Powell's saga and its implications on the Fed's independence and market reactions, highlighting potential political maneuvers and their backfires. Transitioning to monetary policy, they analyze the
Industry S4E2 "The Commander and the Grey Lady" | The Henry Muck Episode
Send us Fan MailHenry Muck is a key character in Season 4, and this episode gives us a much richer picture of who he actually is. In an unexpectedly cinematic, poetic installment that departs from our typical finance-driven fare, this episode plays like a haunting (both literal and emotional) centered around his character. We fill in the missing backstory of Henry and Yas' early engagement, e
Four Drivers That Could Crash or Save the Market in 2026 feat. Head of US Macro at Wellington
Send us Fan MailWe're two weeks into the new year and you can already toss all the consensus forecasts out the window. We sat down with Mike Medeiros to talk about the big risks to all the predictions: from equities to interest rates, the yield curve, currencies, credit markets, and more, so we can understand where the next big moves will come from.Mike gives us a thoughtful framework within
Industry S4E1 FULL RECAP | An American Psycho in London
Send us Fan MailWe're back in action with our full deep dive into the season premiere, "PayPal of Bukkake". We're introducing the star-studded lineup of new characters, exploring what seems to be an American Psycho thread running throughout the episode, and orienting ourselves within the new power structure within the world of "Industry" over a year after the demise o
The Wall Street Skinny x CNBC's Dan Nathan & Guy Adami | "He Said / She Said" NEW Limited Series
Send us Fan MailThis episode marks the launch of a special new collaboration between The Wall Street Skinny and Risk Reversal Media. We're bringing together the stars of CNBC's Fast Money, RiskReversal, On the Tape, and O.K. Computer: Dan Nathan and Guy Adami, with Wall Street experts Kristen Kelly and Jen Saarbach for the first installment of a fresh take on market expertise, financial
Industry Season 4 PREMIERE!!! RED CARPET reaction and LIVE RECAP!!
Send us Fan MailWe’re recording from New York City, fresh off one of the most surreal weeks of our lives — attending the Season 4 premiere of HBO’s Industry, interviewing the cast and creators on the red carpet, and watching the episode in a packed theater alongside the people who made it.In this episode, we share what it was like to meet the writers and actors behind Industry, why this show has
Industry S3E8: "Infinite Largesse" | LIVE from NYC on our way to meet the cast!
Send us Fan MailWe are recording LIVE from New York City, just hours before interviewing the cast and creators on the red carpet of the Season 4 premiere! And we're recapping what might just be the best television finale of all time...for a series that is NOWHERE near finished!In this episode, we find our characters in the aftermath of Al-Miraj's last minute rescue of Pierpoint, as they
Industry S3E7: "Useful Idiot" | The Lehman Episode. Is This the End for Pierpoint?!
Send us Fan MailWe started our careers at the epicenter of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008: the trading floor Lehman Brothers and the CDO Structuring desk at Morgan Stanley. And now, we get to watch our favorite characters reenacting all the drama of the Lehman bankruptcy through the lens of Industry. We dissect the chaotic "war room" dynamics as executive leadership scrambles for a
Industry S3E6 "Nikki Beach, or So Many Ways to Lose" | Pierpoint as the Short of the Century
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we see that friendship and loathing truly are two sides of the same coin. While everything is collapsing for Eric and Yasmin personally, professionally, and morally, Harper is finally ascending into her full power --- at both of their expense.We finally learn what really happened to Yasmin's dad, drawing uncomfortable parallels to chilling real-world headlines
Industry S3E5 "Company Man" | Why the Next “Lehman” Won’t Come From Banks
Send us Fan MailA public inquiry into Lumi’s £2bn government bailout exposes Pierpoint’s role in the disastrous IPO, where Robert is sent to testify in front of a UK select committee. The episode lays bare how firms protect themselves in crises: lawyers serve the institution, not employees, and blame is carefully redirected toward anyone expendable enough to absorb the fallout.The real financial b
Industry S3E4 "White Mischief" | The Rishi Episode: Trading vs. Gambling, Liz Truss, Emergency QE, Sterling Crisis, and More!
Send us Fan MailIn this episode we discuss Season 3, Episode 4: "White Mischief", one of the strongest (and darkest) episodes of the series thus far. What starts as a Christmas episode turns into a brutal examination of luck, power, and the lies we tell ourselves and others. At the end of the day, this episode forces the question: is all trading gambling? If not, what's the differe
JPMorgan's Global Chair of Investment Banking & Capital Markets, Liz Myers: IPOs & Equity Capital Markets 201
Send us Fan MailIn this episode we sit down with Liz Myers, Global Chair of Investment Banking and Capital Markets at J.P. Morgan for an Equity Capital Markets deep dive. We get into IPOs vs follow-ons, primary vs secondary proceeds (and why sponsor-backed IPOs often use proceeds differently), convertibles and the reality of price discovery. Liz breaks down the modern IPO process — from test-the-w
Breaking down Paramount's $108bn hostile bid for WBD in PSKY / NFLX bidding war + Don’t call it QE: The Fed’s new playbook
Send us Fan Mail0-21:30: PSKY / WBD Deal breakdown21:30-51:08 The Fed Breakdown51:08-56:27: Donor Approved Funds for CharityIn this episode, Kristen and Jen continue to unpack Warner Brothers Discover bidding war from what the media is constantly getting wrong including missing the non apples to apples bids from PSKY and NFLX as well as why Paramount’s bid looks nothign like traditional M&A an
Industry S3E3 "It" | Launching a Hedge Fund, Non-Competes, IPO Disaster & ESG Investing Hypocrisy & More!
Send us Fan MailJoin Morgan Stanley alums Jen and Kristen as we decode the finance behind Industry Season 3, Episode 3, "It" which takes place at the COP conference in Switzerland. We break down the aftermath of the IPO and why pressuring a research analyst for a buy rating isn't just frowned upon—it’s illegal. We also analyze the mechanics of Petra and Harper’s attempt to launch th
The Math of Predicting (and Profiting from) the Future: from Cat Bonds to Hedge Funds | Sarah Kapnick, Head of Climate Advisory at J.P. Morgan
Send us Fan MailSarah Kapnick literally trained under John Nash at Princeton, went from structuring catastrophe bonds at Goldman during Hurricane Katrina, to serving as Chief Scientist at NOAA, and is now Global Head of Climate Advisory at JPMorgan. She’s part mathematician, part climate scientist, part Wall Street insider – and the godmother of The Wall Street Skinny, the person who first convinc
HBO's about to be owned by Netflix!? Breaking Down the Netflix / Warner Brothers $72Bn M&A Deal
Send us Fan MailThis week Kristen and Jen break down the blockbuster Netflix–Warner Bros. deal. Netflix has agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets — HBO, Max, Warner Bros. Studios, and its iconic content library — for $27.75 per share in a cash and stock deal. But before the deal closes, Warner Bros. will spin off its cable networks (CNN, TBS, Discovery Channel, and
Michael Burry Accuses Meta + Oracle of AI Accounting Fraud...Legit? Depreciation & Valuation Masterclass
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen unpack the story stirring up markets: Michael Burry’s latest warning that Big Tech is overstating earnings by extending the “useful life” assumptions on their GPUs. The conversation becomes a real-time teach-in on depreciation, useful life estimates, GAAP vs. tax depreciation, and how a small shift in an accounting estim
Is the AI Bubble about to Burst? Plus: Fed Questions, Crypto Collapse, and 50-Year Mortgages
Send us Fan MailOn this episode, we're talking about AI, the Fed, crypto, and housing --- and how those stories all suddenly collided this week. Nvidia’s huge earnings beat briefly sent markets higher, but the rally fizzled fast as investors grew more anxious about a potential AI bubble. We walk through why valuations increasingly assume massive job displacement and unprecedented productivity
Distressed Debt 101 with the GOAT: Michael Gatto, Author of "The Credit Investor’s Handbook"
Send us Fan MailWe’re almost 200 episodes in, and we’ve been waiting for the perfect guest to come on to explain distressed debt investing... the wait is over. In this episode, we’re joined by Michael Gatto, who quite literally wrote the book on credit with The Credit Investor’s Handbook, and serves as the head of private side investing (private markets) at Silver Point, a $41 billion credit asset
Carlyle's Head of Global Wealth, Shane Clifford on Why It's Time to Rethink Private Markets
Send us Fan MailWe are thrilled to present a SPECIAL EDITION of The Wall Street Skinny. This episode, recorded live at Carlyle’s NYC offices, is a candid interview with one of our most impressive (yet shockingly down-to-earth) guests to-date: Shane Clifford, Carlyle’s Head of Global Wealth. If you’re wondering how “Global Wealth” fits into one of the world’s most prestigious private equity mega f
Breaking Down Meta and xAI's "Creative" Off-Balance-Sheet Data Center Financing Plus Deep Dive into The Fed's Insane Press Conference
Send us Fan MailIn this week’s episode, we get into the Fed’s 25 basis point rate cut, Powell’s chaotic press conference before diving into Meta’s creative data center financing which is a lesson on project financing and lease accounting, and finally the growing blur between public and private credit. The Fed’s October meeting delivered the expected 25 bps cut but Powell’s tone afterward left mark
189. Private Equity | Growth Equity Value Creation with Sixth Street's Paul Dodd | Business Operations 101 (Part 2 of 2)
Send us Fan MailThis week, we’re joined by Paul Dodd, Senior Operating Partner and Head of Go-to-Market Operations at Sixth Street, one of the most respected private credit and private equity firms in the world. This episode is Part 2 of our Business Operations 101 series, and we’re digging into how firms like Sixth Street actually create value inside the companies they invest in. Paul specializes
188. Why Apollo Was Blacklisted By First Brands, Credit Market Chaos Continued Plus Business Operations 101 (Part 1 of 2)
Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we sit down with Don Kieffer, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of There’s Gotta Be a Better Way, to talk about what actually makes companies run well. Don has spent decades helping organizations, from Harley-Davidson factory floors to biotech labs, design better systems that unlock real performance. We break down the five-principle fr
187. Breaking Down the Trade That Cost Wall Street a QUARTER BILLION dollars, Plus First Brands Bankruptcy & Gold at Record Highs
Send us Fan MailThis week on The Wall Street Skinny, we kick off discussing gold ripping to record highs and unpack why that’s happening in a still-high-rate world: sticky inflation keeping real yields muted, central-bank buying, safe-haven demand, and a dash of retail frenzy. We also poke holes in the “25/25/25/25” portfolio meme (equities/bonds/cash/gold) and talk through why allocation can’t be
186. Quant Investing 101 feat. PGIM’s Head of Quantitative Equity, Stacie Mintz
Send us Fan MailWhat does it really mean to be a "quant investor"? How do quantitative strategies fit into a modern portfolio? And what does it take to break into a quant investing career path?In this episode, we sat down with Stacie Mintz, Head of Quantitative Equity at PGIM (one of the world's largest asset managers, with $1.4tr in AUM). Stacie's team oversees $60bn in quanti
185. Largest LBO Ever: EA vs. TXU, What the Govt. Shutdown Means for Markets, & Why We Should Ditch the Fed Funds Rate
Send us Fan MailTwo days into a government shutdown, we break down what it actually means for markets when key data go dark—like today’s missing non-farm payrolls—and how that uncertainty can ricochet through trading desks, air travel, the SEC/IPO pipeline, and year-end seasonals. We walk through the historical playbook (rates, dollar, risk) and how we’re thinking about positioning when the Fed is
184. Quarterly Earnings: OUT?! Plus Trump's H1-B Shock, and Should We Ditch the Fed Funds Rate?
Send us Fan MailThis week on The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristin and Jen tackle three headlines where markets and policy collide. First up: Trump’s call to shift public companies from quarterly to semi-annual earnings reporting. We lay out the real trade-offs—less bureaucracy and “short-termism” pressure for management vs. reduced transparency, potential for more volatility, and what this could mea
183. Fixed Income Strategy 101 Feat. Morgan Stanley's Global Head Macro Strategy, Matt Hornbach
Send us Fan MailThe day after the FOMC’s first rate cut of 2025, we sat down with Matt Hornbach, Global Head of Macro Strategy at Morgan Stanley, to unpack what the decision really meant, and what the markets maybe got wrong on first read. Matt talks about the shifting dissenters, how updates to the Summary of Economic Projections present a more complicated picture for the future path of rate cuts
182. The Fed Cut Rates! Our Real Time Breakdown with Columbia Threadneedle's Global Head of Fixed Income, Gene Tannuzzo
Send us Fan MailThis week on The Wall Street Skinny, we sat down with Gene Tannuzzo, Global Head of Fixed Income at Columbia Threadneedle, right as the Federal Reserve’s latest rate decision hit the wires. We walk through the live market reaction to the Fed’s 25 basis point cut, the dissenting voices on the FOMC, and what this move signals about the central bank’s shifting priorities. For those cu
181. Fox / Murdoch Settlement (aka Real Life Succession), Pre-Fed Jitters and Oracle | The Skinny On LIVE
Send us Fan MailKristen and Jen dive into the real-life Succession drama unfolding inside the Murdoch family, breaking down the legal battle over the Fox and News Corp trust that controls the family’s Class B super-voting shares. They explain how Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch secured a deal to buy out their siblings at a discount, why dual-class share structures matter for corporate control, and how
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: On the Timberwolves, Sports Investing, Real Estate and VC
Send us Fan MailAlex Rodriguez is not only one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history, 22 seasons, 14 All-Star selections, and three American League MVP award, but also the founder and CEO of A-Rod Corp. Through A-Rod Corp, he has built a diversified platform across three pillars: sports, real estate, and venture capital. His portfolio spans ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolve
Parallels Between Managing a Hedge Fund and a Baseball Team | "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis Deep Dive
Send us Fan MailIn this week’s episode of The Wall Street Skinny, Kristen and Jen return to one of their favorite formats: dissecting the finance lessons hidden inside pop culture. This time, they take on Moneyball, a Michael Lewis classic that at first glance looks like a baseball story, but in reality is a masterclass in statistics, valuation, and market inefficiencies. Far more than just a spor
178. Emergency Episode: Is This The End of the Federal Reserve?
Send us Fan MailIn this emergency episode of The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen dive into the breaking news that President Trump has moved to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over accusations of mortgage fraud. Using this moment as a springboard, they break down the fundamentals of how the Fed works, why its independence is so important, and how politics intersects with monetary pol
177. The Potential Financial Crisis No One is Talking About: Repocalypse 2.0?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, Jen unpacks an overlooked risk brewing beneath the surface of financial markets. Why did Jerome Powell, head of the Fed, deliver such a surprisingly “dovish” speech at Jackson Hole? Jen suggests it may be because he sees this liquidity problem coming. Looking ahead, Kristen and Jen walk listeners through what to watch: not just whether the
176. Chamath's New SPAC (Detailed Breakdown) Plus Europe’s Yield Curve Warning
Send us Fan MailThis week on The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen dive into the resurgence of SPACs and yes, Chamath Palihapitiya, the once-dubbed “SPAC King,” is back with a brand-new deal. We unpack what a SPAC really is, why they exploded in 2020, changes in the new structures and more. From warrants and dilution to sponsor “promotes” and fee double-dips, we break down the mechanics in pl
175. Will AI Replace Investment Bankers? What You can do NOW to Protect Yourself
Send us Fan MailWorried AI will take your Investment Banking job? There's no avoiding AI these days, so how do you understand it, use it to your advantage, and outperform it in Investment Banking and high finance roles?We asked our community for their toughest questions about the future of finance careers in the age of AI, and sat down for 30 minutes with former Blackhawk helicopter pilot and
174. Canaries in the Coal Mine? Perplexity's $34bn bid for Chrome; Fed Cut Fallout, and Private Credit PIK Concerns
Send us Fan MailThis week, Kristen and Jen dive straight into the finance headlines with a M&A story: Perplexity, an AI startup valued at $18 billion, has made a $34 billion all-cash bid for Google Chrome. Kristen unpacks why this is virtually unprecedented in dealmaking, explaining how the size mismatch, lack of financing capacity, and Chrome’s not-for-sale status make the offer so unusual. T
173. Prof Emily Oster on Good Data, Bad Data, and the Truth About Parenting in High-Stress Careers
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, Kristen and Jen sit down with Professor Emily Oster, a Harvard-educated economist with a PhD and a faculty position at Brown University where her studies focus on approaches to finding causality in observational data, as well as the best-selling author of "Expecting Better", "Crib Sheet", and "The Family Firm"
172. INDUSTRY S3E2 "Smoke and Mirrors” Breakdown | IPO Disasters, Greenshoe and More!
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of the unofficial companion podcast to HBO Max's hit show, Industry, hosts Jen and Kristen dive deep into the financial intricacies and dramatic moments of Season 3, Episode 2 titled 'Smoke and Mirrors.' They kick off the discussion by analyzing the thematic significance of 'Smoke and Mirrors,' tying it to both magic tricks and the episode&a
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