Big Take

On today’s podcast, host David Gura speaks to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about everything from the health of the economy to negotiating with China. He also accompanies her on a trip to an IRS processing facility in Texas to talk about tax cheats and what to do about them.   Read more: Yellen Says Jobs Report Confirms Labor Market ‘Quite Healthy’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

Eleven million people have been let go in the US so far this year. And the job market they’re entering isn’t easy: the latest jobs report showed the economy added just 142,000 jobs in August. But ever since the pandemic, the way we experience — and process — getting laid off has fundamentally changed. It’s no longer just a source of shame. It’s become social media content. Today on the show, host...

Billionaire brothers Clark and Dan Hunt, co-owners of the Kansas City Chiefs, aren’t resting on their laurels after back-to-back Super Bowl victories. They’re hoping for another title, and they’re growing their family’s sports portfolio.  The Hunts want to boost the NFL’s popularity overseas, and as co-owners of FC Dallas, they’re also trying to capitalize on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.  Bloomberg re...

The US asylum process is meant to offer a fair shot at safe haven. But new reporting from Bloomberg uncovers how the difference between those who are granted asylum and those who are denied often boils down to chance. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg investigative reporter Monte Reel joins host David Gura to trace the arc of one man’s journey and discuss new data analysis that reveals the fl...

X users might have noticed a new kind of artificial intelligence-generated image proliferating: strange visions of Elon Musk next to Disney characters carrying guns, or Donald Trump in all kinds of, well, weird situations. This was what followed a new release of Musk’s Grok AI tool, which can now make images—unsurprisingly with fewer guardrails than other image-creating machines out there. On this...

The taxis of the future are already here. And they’re airborne. After years of research and development and billions in investment, autonomous flying taxis are finally poised to take off. Companies working on these pilotless vehicles have been quietly working on prototypes — and recently, Bloomberg reporter Colum Murphy took a test flight in one of the first models operating in China. But once the...

The World Health Organization declared the last mpox global emergency over in May 2023. And just over a year later, here we are again. Since the start of 2024, a deadlier, more transmissible strain of the virus has killed about 575 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and infected 30 times more. New cases have recently appeared in Europe and Asia. In August, the WHO declared a new mpox globa...

Call centers in the Philippines, the world’s second-biggest outsourcing center after India, are embracing artificial intelligence - and it’s radically changing what it looks and sounds like to work there.  On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins demos the Sanas AI app and talks to Bloomberg's Saritha Rai about the industry's rapid transition and what it might mean for workers...

The time has finally come for a rate cut. That was the takeaway of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks in Jackson Hole on Friday when he let the world know to expect a cut at the next ​​Fed meeting in September. Bloomberg’s Mike McKee joins host Sarah Holder from Jackson Hole to discuss what that cut could look like — and what it would mean for the economy, the US election and the American consumer....

A Chinese businessman persuaded officials to establish a special economic zone in a remote part of Laos. The gamblers arrived first. Then came the drug runners, human traffickers and scammers. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Matt Campbell about his investigation into the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone and how it became a criminal’s...

For the first time in more than a decade, Burning Man has not sold out.  The gathering prides itself on its counter-cultural roots, and draws tens of thousands of people to the Nevada desert every year for a week of art, music and adventure. But it’s also gradually moved further into the mainstream, becoming a rite of passage for a certain set of Silicon Valley elites. Whether it’s because of last...

Ports often make the news when they break: like the bridge collapse that shut down Baltimore's port earlier this year. But every day, ports in cities around the world keep supply chains humming and feed local economies; every year, they help move 80% of the things we buy. As conflicts between world powers intensify, ports are also the latest battlefields where geopolitical power is won and lost. O...

After ten months of fighting in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hamas could be close to a cease-fire deal. As of Monday afternoon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel had agreed to a cease-fire proposal. Hamas had yet to officially respond. If an eventual deal is achieved… the question becomes: How could the Gaza Strip rebuild? On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg reporters Fares Al...

There is nearly $13 trillion invested in exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. ETFs that mirror the S&P 500. ETFs for gold. ETFs for bitcoin. There’s even a Vegan ETF. How did this market get so big and varied? And just what goes into one? On today’s podcast, our Bloomberg Explains series continues with Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst and co-host of the Trillions podcast Eric Balchunas. He...

That White Lotus -inspired trip to Sicily. The Instagram-perfect Joshua Tree glamping holiday. A party weekend in Miami. Ever since the first lockdown restrictions were lifted in 2021, Americans have been spending big on travel. But a recent slew of weak earnings from companies like Delta and Expedia suggest that the post-pandemic travel boom is finally over. In today’s episode, Bloomberg tech rep...

After weeks of protests and a brutal crackdown that led to several hundred deaths, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to step down and flee the country, putting an abrupt end to her more than 15 years in power. Stepping into the leadership vacuum is Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, who we spoke to last month -- when he was facing charges that his supporters said were...

The sovereign wealth funds of the Persian Gulf used to be relatively easy places for US firms like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs to raise money. But recently, the power dynamics between Wall Street and Middle Eastern wealth fund managers have been shifting. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Heather Perlberg breaks down for host David Gura why Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are asking...

Have you had the flu recently? Or RSV? Or just... some bug that you can’t quite shake? If so, you’re not alone. Bloomberg’s data team recently decided to investigate whether or not the perception that we’re all getting sick all the time is actually backed up by numbers. And what they found was truly surprising: in countries around the world, people are getting much sicker, much more often in the w...

On today’s Big Take podcast, economist Claudia Sahm explains the Sahm rule: how she came up with the idea, whether or not we’re in a recession, and why she wishes it was called something else. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when new weight-loss drugs like Ozempic transform a community? Bloomberg healthcare reporter Madison Muller went to Bowling Green, Kentucky to find out. That area has one of the highest concentrations of weight-loss drug prescriptions in the US. On today’s Big Take podcast, we explore what that means for people who live there, how these drugs are reshaping the local economy, and what...

Gautam Adani, the controversial Indian billionaire, gathered his two sons and two nephews for a family lunch one day and asked them a bombshell question: Did they want to carve up the Adani Group’s sprawling businesses between themselves or stick together? He gave them three months to decide. Today on The Big Take, host K. Oanh Ha talks to Bloomberg editor Anto Antony about the Adanis’ ambitious s...

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 had its worst day in nearly two years and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed over 1,000 points. Shares on Japan’s Nikkei Index fell by over 12% — their worst showing since Black Monday in 1987. Cryptocurrencies dropped, bond yields rose and the VIX, known as the fear index, saw its biggest one-day spike in more than 30 years. Is the Fed to blame? AI over-exuberan...

In April of 2023, a man carrying a small, black box walked into one of the nation’s most secure buildings, right next to the White House. In the box were ingredients that could be used to create a bioweapon. What the man revealed about how he got his hands on these ingredients was even scarier: an AI chatbot had given him the recipe. On today’s Big Take, host David Gura speaks to Bloomberg healthc...

If you’ve applied to a job and never heard back, you may have fallen prey to a ghost job — an online listing for a role that never actually existed. Ghost jobs aren’t just leaving job seekers frustrated. They’re also muddying the waters of the labor market when it comes to assessing the strength of the economy. On today’s Big Take podcast, Sarah Holder digs into the ghost job phenomenon with Molly...

Each year in April, the US conducts a lottery that shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And each year, only around 85,000 are granted an H-1B visa for highly-skilled workers. With skyrocketing application numbers, the odds of winning have only gotten slimmer. But new data obtained by Bloomberg News has revealed how certain companies have manipulated the system, gaining an advantage...