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Lucas V. Schuermann, Co-Founder of Variational, joins us to talk about building a high-performance crypto brokerage model on Arbitrum. Lucas explains how Variational routes execution to TradFi venues, eliminates external market maker extraction through its in-house LP, introduces flat-rate swaps to fix funding rate volatility, and builds isolated smart contracts to protect user capital. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com --- ## Notes: * Variational sees $1B daily volume on platform. * Platform holds $1.4B in total open interest. * Swaps feature a flat carry cost around 4% to 5%. * LP takes the other side of 100% of platform trades. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:46 Lucas' background 03:20 Hedgefund strategies 05:59 Hedgefund tasks 08:31 Variational founding 10:45 Variational market structure 13:41 RWA 16:32 RWA hedging 19:17 Market neutrality 22:53 "Venue for
Don't sorry I put two ChinaTalk Records songs at the end! their show notes: On this episode of The Spillover, Sebastian Mallaby sits down with Jordan Schneider of ChinaTalk to unpack a frantic month in artificial intelligence. The conversation turns on whether the U.S. can actually “win” the AI race, with Schneider arguing that the most durable competitive edge will come from compute rather than model quality. The two debate China’s open-weight model strategy as a commercial weapon and question whether it will be possible to sufficiently harden systems against threats like cyberattacks and AI-designed bioweapons. Anthropic’s Mythos model has led the Trump administration to take an AI-safety U-turn. Mallaby notes that as late as March 2026, “if you had said to the Trump administration that they would be trying to suppress an American AI model, decelerate the progress in the name of safety
Bloomberg Money takes the pulse of your financial life, powered by the reporting of our global newsroom. Today's guests include: Richard Clarida, Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lori Calvasina, RBC Capital Markets Head:US Equity Strategy Hannah Elliot, Hot Pursuit! Podcast co-host See for privacy information.
The latest in finance, economics and investment. Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube:. Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul SweeneyFriday, July 31st, 2026 Featuring: 1) Gregory Daco, Chief Economist at EY-Parthenon, joins to discuss nominal GDP, the Fed, and outlook for inflation. 2) Victoria Fernandez, Chief Market Strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, talks the markets' earnings push and equity reaction to the Fed. 3) Mallika Sachdeva, FX Strategist at Deutsche Bank, talks about strengthening the yen and the Bank of Japan. 4) Ellen Wald, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, talks about a regional Middle East war and recent moves in oil post-big oil earnings today. Leslie Vinjamuri, President & CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, joins for a panel discussion. See for privacy information.
I spoke with a bank executive this week about where the attention is going. “AI is the only focus.” That captures the mood. Crypto is in a bear market. The excitement has moved elsewhere. But here’s one number that stopped me this week: 80 seconds. That’s how long it took some of the world’s biggest banks to settle a cross-border payment in the BIS Project Agorá test. But what settled wasn’t a stablecoin. It was tokenized central bank reserves and bank deposits. Here’s what matters, though: Banks aren’t chasing speed; they’re defending the deposit. When money settles in a stablecoin, it leaves the balance sheet, and deposits are what fund the lending business. A tokenized deposit is the same dollar, still on the bank’s books, now programmable. This week’s signals at a glance: * The world’s biggest banks settled cross-border payments in 80 seconds * BNY is moving $8.6 trillion of fund rec
Insurers have quietly become a major driver of the private credit boom, with numerous private equity shops striking deals with insurance companies or buying them outright. But the entanglement with private credit is also changing the insurance industry itself, raising a number of questions about risk and regulation. Today we speak to Andrew Granato and Pranjal Drall, authors of a new paper, “Private Credit's State Backstop: How Private Equity Socializes Risk Through Insurers," examining the relationship between private credit and insurance. Granato (an assistant professor at the UT Austin Law School) and Drall (JD-PhD student in Financial Economics at Yale) talk to us about how PE got so interested in insurance in the first place, how both sides benefit from the relationship, and why taxpayers might ultimately be on the hook. Read more: Blue Owl Surges as Leaders Stress It’s
Marvin Barth is the creator of Thematic Markets and Seriously, Marvin?!. Thematic Markets is rigorous, institutional-quality research aimed at market professionals, while Seriously, Marvin?! presents more accessible takes on contrarian musings Marvin doesn't have time to research at Thematic Markets. Both publications benefit from the uniquely broad perspective on the global political economy Marvin has gained from a three-decade career spanning nearly every asset class, academia, central banking, finance ministry, and international institutions. This includes working at Barclays Investment Bank, Citi, the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the Bank for International Settlements. The Locali s ation Thesis Manufacturing vs. The AI "Bubble" The Labour Disconnect (Poetry vs. Welding) Trump 2.0: Preparedness and Instincts The Iran War and American Exceptionalism The Fed
Productivity has been a problem for the past 15 years. In developed countries, weak demand, a lack of competition and a paucity of new ideas have all been blamed. Could AI finally reverse that trend? Soumaya speaks to Stanford economics professor Nick Bloom about why CFOs and CEOs expect AI to supercharge their businesses; how concentrated (or otherwise) the gains might be; and why working from home could be good for labour output… and fertility rates. Subscribe to Soumaya's show on Apple , Spotify , Pocket Casts or wherever you listen. Further Reading Is AI productivity growth in the room with us right now? How much value is AI really creating? Hosted by Soumaya Keynes. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Original music by Breen Turner. Sound design by Sean McGarrity. Andrew Georgiades is the broadcast engineer. Edwin Lane is the senior producer. Flo Phillips is the FT’s head of audio. Rea
MacroVoices Erik Townsend & Patrick Ceresna welcome, Jim Bianco. They will discuss this weeks FOMC meeting. ✅Sign up for a FREE 14-day trial at Big Picture Trading: 🔴 Subscribe to Patrick’s Youtube Channel: 🔴 Subscribe to Erik's Substack
The latest in finance, economics and investment. Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube:. Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul SweeneyThursday July 30, 2026 Featuring: 1) Tani Fukui, Senior Director of Economic & Market Strategy at MetLife Investment Management, Andrew Szczurowski, Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Seema Shah, Chief Global Strategist at Principal Asset Management, react to today's inflation data and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference yesterday. 2) Paul Sankey, founder at Sankey Research, talks about the Houthi v. Saudi escalation and how it's affecting energy, and why everyone's focused on the wrong oil price. 3) Gil Luria, Head: Technology Research at DA Davidson & Co., breaks down Meta and Microsoft earnings and previews Amazon and Apple. 4) Sophia Drossos, Economist at Point72, talks about wheth
Bloomberg’s Tom Keene, Jon Ferro and Lisa Abramowicz discuss remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh following the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision on a special edition of Bloomberg Surveillance. Warsh insisted policymakers’ decision to leave interest rates unchanged wasn’t a sign of inertia at the central bank, which he reiterated is committed to tackling inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to hold the benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, Cleveland’s Beth Hammack and Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari dissented in favor of raising rates by a quarter percentage point. The fractured vote signaled growing conviction among some policymakers that higher rates are needed to curb resurgent price pressures. The committee’s post-meeting statement was otherwise identical to the one is
Bloomberg's Tom Keene, Jon Ferro and Lisa Abramowicz break down the Federal Reserve's latest policy decision on a special edition of Bloomberg Surveillance. Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged, but a fractured vote signaled growing conviction among some policymakers that higher rates are needed to curb resurgent inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to hold the benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, Cleveland’s Beth Hammack and Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari dissented in favor of raising rates by a quarter percentage point. The committee’s post-meeting statement was otherwise identical to the one issued following their June meeting. Officials repeated their pledge to “deliver price stability.” See for privacy information.
The latest in finance, economics and investment. Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube:. Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul SweeneyThursday, July 30, 2026 Featuring: 1) Kay Haigh, CIO: Fixed Income at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, talks about the fixed income outlook even if the Fed hikes today. 2) Ian Wyatt, Chief Economist at Huntington Bank, talks about the Fed holding rates and why the "K" economy is old news. 3) Ian Lyngen, Head of US Rates Strategy at BMO Capital Markets, discusses the hawkish pause position. 4) Julia Wilson, Principal: Consumer & Retail Strategy at KPMG, talks about the squeezed consumer and back-to-school acceleration affecting eco data. See for privacy information.
Professor Vali Nasr argues that the single objective that's driven Tehran since 1979 has been defending its independence from the US. Author of Iran’s Grand Strategy, Nasr says that logic, more than ideology, explains the current war. He unpacks Iran's shift toward hard-nosed nationalism, what leverage it has left, and whether the country will take a more pragmatic approach to geopolitics. Sir Richard Dearlove and guest co-host John Raine talk through the headlines shaping today’s geopolitics: Japan's intelligence overhaul, the fallout from Zelensky's clash with his defense minister, China's new AI cooperation push, and the UK's untested new PM Andy Burnham. 03:16 Japan Builds Spy Agency07:35 Ukraine Defense Shakeup11:14 China Pushes AI Rules14:49 New UK Prime Minister18:24 Guest interview begins23:20 From Islam to Nationalism28:15 War Pragmatism and New Leaders32:27 Proxies and Forward
The latest in finance, economics and investment. Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube:. Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul SweeneyMonday, July 27, 2026 Featuring: 1) Isabelle Mateos y Lago, Chief Global Economist at BNP Paribas, joins to preview a slew of central bank decisions this week and talks about how each are pricing in effects of Iran war 2) Amanda Lynam, Chief Credit Strategist at Goldman Sachs, talks AI debt issuance and the latest spreads in credit. 3) Alvina Lo, Head of Advice, Planning & Fiduciary Services at BNY Wealth, discusses wealth planning for families and how she's allocating around client concerns. 4) Celine Woo, Portfolio Manager at Lazard Asset Management, talks the infrastructure, enabling, and application layers of tech and AI ahead of a key week of tech earnings. See for privacy information.
In Episode 491 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with trade economist Chad Bown—a former chief economist at the U.S. State Department, host of the popular Trade Talks podcast, and co-author of the recently published How to Win a Trade War—about what international policymakers, companies, and individuals need to understand about America's ongoing trade war, what victory would look like for the various parties involved in the conflict, and most importantly, how to win. The first hour lays the intellectual groundwork for understanding the modern trading system, examining the unique role played by the dollar and capital recycling in concentrating the gains from trade among the owners of capital, and stress-testing the theory of weaponized interdependence through the ongoing case studies of Russia's war against Ukraine and America's latest war with Iran. The second hour turns from the
David Wessel is a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings and is the director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. In David's first appearance on the show, he discusses stories of the Greenspan Fed, what is was like in Europe when the euro was adopted, the legacy of the Powell Fed, his thoughts on the great man theory, the outlook for the Kevin Warsh Fed, the ongoing challenge of Fed independence, and much more. Watch the full length video on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on June 15th, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow David Wessel on X: @DavidMWessel Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings merch! Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:48 - David's Career 00:19:30 - Legacies of Fed Chairmans 00:3
Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube: Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul Sweeney Friday, July 24, 2026 Featuring: 1) Joe Lavorgna, Chief Economist as SMBC Nikko Securities, joins for a discussion on President Trump's new tariff plan and whether the President can execute his economic policy effectively amid the war in Iran. 2) Emily Roland, Co-Chief Investment Strategist at Manulife Investment Management, talks about the best of times for the S&P (earnings) and the worst of times for energy (oil prices). 3) Kara Murphy, Chief Investment Officer at Kestra Investment Management, brings us into the market open and discusses the market's opposing forces and how corporate earnings keep driving it higher. 4) Monica Guerra, Executive Director and Head of US Policy at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, joins to talk Midterm concerns for the GOP and President Trump's new tari
The biggest oil shock in modern history came and went without the catastrophe everyone expected. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, analysts warned that oil could hit $200 a barrel, but the global economy avoided that fate. The Trump administration has argued that the crisis was contained thanks to their aggressive action, but they may be taking the wrong lessons from the avoidance of that apocalyptic scenario. What happened was the largest unexpected swing in global oil balances: China quietly cut crude oil imports by more than five million barrels a day. Yet there was no corresponding collapse in economic activity, no obvious drop in mobility, and no official explanation from Beijing. Somehow, China stopped buying oil from the rest of the world and started drawing from stockpiles we can’t fully observe. That single decision may have done more to prevent a global energy crisis than
(0:00) Bestie intros! (0:18) The fight to save open source AI: Kimi K3 panic, Anthropic/OpenAI regulatory capture (27:38) Anthropic/OpenAI historic growth rates, China's long game (48:29) Anthropic's $1.5B piracy settlement and the great IP theft hypocrisy (1:07:12) Google and Tesla stocks tank on surging AI capex (1:17:19) Socialism Corner: "Evictions = Violence" and the threat to private property rights Apply for All-In Summit 2026: Follow the besties: Follow on X: Follow on Instagram: Follow on TikTok: Follow on LinkedIn: Intro Music Credit: Intro Video Credit: Referenced in the show
Five months into the Iran campaign, the US has two carrier strike groups parked in the Arabian Sea, a blockade that may take months to bite, and a daisy chain of tankers stretching thousands of miles because there is no longer any fuel or food to buy inside the Gulf. Now the Houthis have entered the chat and declared their own blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb. Just the OG crew with Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former submarine officer, Justin Mc a former special operations officer who works on defense technology, and Tony Stark. We discuss… What Trump is doing in Iran, why the Navy is short-cycling ships out of maintenance and what happened the last time the fleet ran this hot, from McCain and Fitzgerald to the Truman’s two collisions in one deployment Why a ground campaign in Iran is a fantasy, from the Marsh Arabs to the Alborz range to the Baluch salt flats, a
Dr Clarida is a managing director and global economic advisor at PIMCO. Prior to rejoining PIMCO in 2022, he was the firm's global strategic advisor from 2006 to 2018. He served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System from September 2018 to January 2022. Richard is also Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University. Before joining PIMCO in 2006, he was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, in which he served as chief economic advisor to two U.S. Treasury Secretaries. Earlier in his career, he was with Credit Suisse and Grossman Asset Management. He has 26 years of investment experience and holds a PhD and a master's degree in economics from Harvard University. He received an undergraduate degree with Bronze Tablet Honors from the University of Illinois. In this podcast, we discuss: Clarida's Macro Origin S
The latest in finance, economics and investment. Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube: Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul Sweeney Thursday, July 23, 2026 Featuring: 1) Jim Caron, CIO: Cross Asset Solutions at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, talks about the Fed's cultural change and what it means for the direction of markets. 2) Matt Bloxham, Senior Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, covers a slew of tech news, including Google AI spending and Tesla's and IBM's misses. 3) Daragh Maher, Senior FX Strategist & Head of Digital Assets Research at HSBC, talks dollar strength and his digital assets call. 4) Julia Coronado, President/Founder of Macropolicy Perspectives, talks about the Fed speak reversal and economic data noise. See for privacy information.
AI’s next phase hinges on a paradox: falling costs could threaten today’s winners while unlocking far greater demand. Steve Hou, head of research at Silicon Data and former Bloomberg strategist, joins us to examine the changing economics of AI compute. We discuss token efficiency, model routing, GPU pricing, memory bottlenecks, and when enterprise adoption may finally deliver measurable returns. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 01:01 Why AI Compute Needs Hedging 06:55 What The Token Index Really Shows 14:04 Token Maxing Meets Efficiency 18:35 Who Captures AI’s Value? 22:12 Old GPUs Reveal Surging Demand 27:10 GPU Markets Keep Tightening 32:03 The Memory Bottleneck 37:07 AI’s Next Phase FOLLOW STEVE › X/Twitter – https://x.com/stevehou › Silicon Data – https://www.silicondata.com/ FOLLOW THE SHOW › Forward Guidance – https://x.com/ForwardGuidance › Felix – https://x.com/fejau_inc › Telegram
(0:00) Bubble talk: Comparing today's AI market to the dot-com bubble (7:50) AI's real-world limits: why enterprise AI is harder than expected (16:38) Transitioning to an AI-First Workspace (21:26) Health & AI: self-directed healthcare and biometric data (24:30) Politics, wealth tax, and AI as a truth-seeking force (35:12) Knicks & Sports Talk Thanks to our partners for making this possible! AppLovin Ads — AppLovin's AI advertising platform reaches over a billion daily active users across mobile games. Full-screen video ads with a 35-second median watch time. Advertisers are profitably spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a day and advertiser access is still in closed beta. The window is open at Starting a business? Northwest Registered Agent gives you everything you need to build a complete Business Identity including free tools and built-in privacy. Get more at Follow Mark: Follow
Sam Lyman is the head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and formerly was a senior advisor and speechwriter for Treasury Secretary Bessent. In Sam's first appearance on the show, he discusses Secretary Bessent's secret skill, the competition in the digital payments space between the US and China, why the strategic Bitcoin reserve is important, what the future of Bitcoin holds, where things stand with the CLARITY Act, the Q Day conundrum, whether Satoshi Yakamoto is alive or dead, where Sam thinks the anti-AI sentiment is coming from, and much more. Watch the full length video on our new YouTube Channel! Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on May 21st, 2026 Subscribe to David's Substack: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus Follow David on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow Sam on X: @SamLyman33 Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Check out our Macro Musings
(0:00) Bestie intros! (1:32) New AI regulatory proposal: DeepMind's Demis Hassabis proposes FINRA-type body (20:01) Stripe, Block, and Advent offer $53B to acquire PayPal (37:51) Apple sues OpenAI, alleging stolen trade secrets (42:49) Grok Build data leak, AI data privacy, Tokenmaxxing update, Mira Murati's new model (59:53) NY bans datacenters, becoming first state to enact a moratorium (1:22:57) Science Corner: New data on reversing aging! Adopt Ronnie the Dog: https://www.instagram.com/reels/Da0pGahBwaW Apply for All-In Summit 2026: https://allin.com/events Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro M
Markets reward independent thinking, but only if you can avoid the traps that come with it. This week, Brent Donnelly, President of Spectra Markets and author of Trade Outside the Box, joins us to discuss how psychology, risk management, and market narratives shape successful trading. We explore poker's lessons for traders, AI's role in markets, Kevin Warsh's Fed, the dollar and yen, and why predicting people may matter more than predicting macro. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 02:00 Trading Outside The Box 06:38 Trading Psychology And Risk 12:46 AI As A Trading Tool 19:33 How LLMs Shape Markets 25:19 Kevin Warsh And The New Fed 33:37 The Yen Intervention Playbook 41:40 Is Government Debt Sustainable? 43:00 Has Bitcoin Lost Its Narrative? FOLLOW BRENT › X/Twitter – https://x.com/donnelly_brent › Spectra Markets – https://www.spectramarkets.com/am-fx/ › Trade Outside The Box – https://a.c
In Episode 484 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with AI policy researcher, writer, and incoming Head of Strategic Futures at OpenAI, Dean Ball, about the intellectual foundations of machine intelligence, the governance frameworks best suited to frontier AI, and what's at stake for society, the nation state, and the individual if we get this transition wrong. The first hour builds the philosophical scaffolding for the conversation to come — what intelligence actually is, how large language models learn, what they understand, and the broader historical thesis animating Dean's worldview: that we are not witnessing the birth of something entirely new, but rather living through a computing revolution that began with the transistor and is now reaching its natural culmination in the era of machine intelligence. The second hour turns to what's at stake in this transition and the governan
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23 active podcast feeds are monitored. Homepage selection remains editorial: an episode must be current and materially relevant to macro, markets, policy, geopolitics, or systemically important technology.