Offbeat Wall Street

We're past Labor Day - the kids are back to school.  The mornings are going to start having a nip in the air.  But on Wall Street the doldrums of summer continue. Luckily, we've got football season to keep us occupied.  This episode, we take a look at the evolving business model of daily fantasy sites. We don't ignore the usual Wall Street business, though.  We'll take a closer look at the interest rate situation and scrutinize the latest tea leaves from the Fed.

Labor Day is around the corner...Wall Street's going to take the day off, but we're not. This gave us a perfect opportunity to look at the labor market and how its organized.  It's our Norma Rae special!  Or maybe better: our State of the Unions address! In this episode, we take a look at how union membership has changed in the past several decades.  We also take a look at unions now. And as always, we take our usual tour around Wall Street. We've got an update on interest rates now that Janet Yellen has given her much anticipated Jackson Hole speech.  We've got a deep dive into the housing market.  And we've got a preview of next week: in keeping with the Labor Day theme, its all jobs data all the time.

It's time to say goodbye to the Olympics... With the Rio games closing down, we thought it would be fun to look back to the first modern olympics in 1896. It was a simplier time.  There were no TV cameras.  No staged robberies.  And Bob Costas was just entering middle age, tired of his gig as a columnist for bare-knuckle prize fighting and looking for a new challenge. We also take our usual tour around Wall Street. We look at the Fed and the prospects of a rate hike in the near future.  We look back at some of the big retail earnings rivalries of the past week.  And we look ahead to this week's big reports on housing and the manufacturing sector.

This week, we've got the Olympics on our mind. The U.S. is dominating the games.  NBC - not so much. The network's coverage of the games has been widely criticized.  We'll take a closer look at how well NBC is really doing and whether there's anything they can do, given the current media culture. We also take our usual tour around Wall Street. The consumer was in focus on Wall Street last week, with retail sales and a bunch of earnings reports from major retailers.  This continues this week, with industry big dog Wal-Mart leading the way.   And we check in on the Fed, looking at when a rate hike is likely to happen.

This week, we're thinking about gender...and ghosts of the past. The new Ghostbusters movie came out a few weeks ago.  The remake has become controversial, mostly due to the harsh reaction fans of the original movie had to the female cast.  Meanwhile, around the same time as the movie's release, Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major political party in the U.S. In this episode, we look at how far gender equality has come since Clinton began her career more than 40 years ago. We also take our usual tour of Wall Street.  We take a closer look at the new jobs data released last week. We also take a look at the steps central banks around the world are taking to head off a slowdown.  We also check in on the Fed, who would love to start raising rates...if only the economy would let them. We also take a look at what's on the docket for this week.

This week, we have politics on our minds.  The Republicans just wound down a crazy convention in Cleveland.  Meanwhile, the Democrats are gearing up for their blowout this week. Every four years, both parties claim they have right program for economic growth.  We're going to try to figure out who actually has the edge historically. Are Democrats or Republicans better at managing the economy?  We'll give you a straight-forward and definitive answer...sort of. And as always we'll take look around at what you may have missed last week in the world of finance.  And we'll also look ahead to what's in store for the markets. This is the "feeding our foodless" edition of Offbeat Wall Street.

The new Jason Bourne movie is coming out next week.  That got us thinking about amnesia...something Wall Street seems to have developed in recent weeks. A couple of weeks ago, investors were worried about a fragile economy, about Brexit and about looming interest rate hikes.  Now the stock market is hitting new highs.  Has Wall Street forgotten to be scared? While we're on the subject, we look at the phenomena of "corporate amnesia" and how to combat it.  We'll also look at some cases where an act of forgetfulness cost millions (and even billions) of dollars.  Not to mention people's lives.

This week, we're taking a break from our normal format. Usually, we take a look at what's going on in the markets and look ahead at what to expect in the near future. This week, we're going to look back - way back.   This year marks the 40th anniversery of the founding of Apple Computer. We're going to take a little time to tell that story - 7 minutes to be precise.  We'll look at how Steve Jobs went from being a wunderkind to the greatest icon in the history of tech to a guy universally acknowledged as one of the biggest jerks in modern business history.  And of course, eventually back again to icon. But today, we're just telling the first part of the story.

This week, we're thinking about break ups. This is, of course, inspired by the good people of the U.K. They went to the polls last week to vote on whether they should break up with the European Union.  We'll take a closer look at how the vote went down. (Hint: badly). We'll also take a close look at relationships in general. Of course, business is all about relationships.  Money's just the way you show you care.  We investigate that a bit.  And we check out some science behind business relationships and we let you know some of the weird quirks that go into making personal business judgements. In honor of Annie Hall, this is the "dead shark" edition of Offbeat Wall Street...

Almost every Disney movie follows the same formula: in the first 2 minutes, a mother or wife dies.  Or maybe a child is kidnapped or incapacitated.  But from there, it's 90 minutes of mad-cap comedy and adventure. That's a little like the stock market. This week, we take a look at what markets do when faced with tragedy, such as the Pulse massacre in Orlando. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Fed decision came out last week.  We'll take a closer look at that. And the good people of the U.K. are preparing to vote on exiting the European Union.  We'll preview what to expect there... In honor of Finding Dory and Finding Nemo, his is the "just keep swimming" edition of Offbeat Wall Street.

This is the "billionaires don't beg" edition of Offbeat Wall Street. This week, we've got politics on our minds. The primaries are over. The general election is about to get ramped up. We'll take a quick look back at the money spent during the primaries We'll look at who raised the most, who spent the most and who got the most bang for the buck. We'll also take a look at this week's long awaited Federal Reserve meeting. A rate hike now is extremely unlikely. Still, that doesn't mean that the Fed meeting is without drama.

Like Humphrey Bogart's Philip Marlowe, we're on a case that just keeps twisting. The big mystery on Wall Street has been whether the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates at its June meeting. We've been sifting through the clues for weeks.  We're looked through the minutes of the last meeting.  We've picked apart speeches from Fed members.  We've dissected the most obscure economic measures. Well, we finally got the smoking gun this week.  It looks like the answer is "no." But like any good Raymond Chandler story, one mystery leads to another.  We're now pretty sure the Fed is going to hold off on any rate hikes, but there's a new question on Wall Street: Is the economy headed for a Big Sleep?

This week, we wander the world's beaches seeking enlightenment.  We'll trek from Latigo Beach to Baja.  From  Sumatra to Fiji.  And, finally, we make our way to the Bells Beach 50-year storm that is the Federal Reserve. Interest rate hikes are on the way.  This has become increasingly clear over the last few weeks.  At first this caused some panic.  But investors are trying to find some peace among the waves. This is the Point Break, "Bodhi knows" edition of Offbeat Wall Street.

People think of Wall Street as confusing, boring and made for rich people.  We're looking to change that impression.  Our mission is to make the financial markets clear, interesting and accessible (and maybe even a little funny). In this this brief encounter of an episode, we lay out our philosophy and get you hyped up for the full episodes, which will be dropping in the near future.  Each week we'll give you a rundown of really important news from Wall Street and the world of finance.  We'll also give you a look ahead at what's coming up and what you should keep on your radar. We'll help you figure out what lessons to learn and which rich people made fools of themselves.  We'll also try to give you some context and general knowledge of how to navigate financial markets, sprinkling in investing insights and tips on retirement.  And we'll try to fit in as many Kanye West jokes as we can.