Jul 23, 2020
When stocks are soaring and sports bloggers like Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports and talking about how easy it is to make money in the stock market, it might be time to worry. Dan opens this week's episode by reminding listeners, "this is exactly what it sounds like at the top."
Then on this week's interview, Dan welcomes guest William Cohan on to the show. Will started his career as an investigative reporter for the Raleigh Times before eventually setting his sights on Wall Street. He quickly began a successful career as a mergers and acquisitions banker, eventually becoming a managing director at JPMorgan Chase.
Will and Dan discuss a wide range of topics including Will's latest book, The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. Will says, "That's why I wanted to write this book... to share with people what it was like to work at this firm, which had this soaring reputation and was filled with, as you pointed out directly, Great Men but was utterly dysfunctional, utterly chaotic." Will gives Dan all of the fascinating details about what goes on behind the scenes at some of Wall Street's biggest firms.
And finally on the mailbag, one listener asks Dan... if inflation occurs and interest rates rise, could we see a period where real estate prices suffer? And another listener asks some in depth questions about asset swaps at the Fed.
Dan gives the listener a long and detailed answer here on this week's episode.