Big Take

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.

In this week's Weekend Listen, Odd Lots speaks 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 More Than a Direct Lender
Ares $29 Billion Private Credit Fund Sees Uptick in Non-Accruals
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The path to the future of the Democratic Party — and to the White House in 2028 — may well run through Michigan. The state’s upcoming Democratic primary election is a highly anticipated showdown between a Democratic-Socialist-backed candidate and a centrist one, who are vying for both a crucial seat in the US Senate and a major say in the party’s priorities.
On today’s Big Take podcast, host David Gura sits down with senior political correspondent Nancy Cook and Bloomberg Opinions’ Ronald Brownstein to unpack the stakes of the Democratic primaries in this midterm cycle and what they could reveal about the party’s future.
Read more:
How the Michigan Primary Could Shape the Midterms
Democrats’ 2028 Map Reshapes the Fight Between Left and Center
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Hosted by David Gura; Produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by Nancy Cook and Ronald Brownstein; Edited by Naomi Shavin. Fact-checking by Laura Newcombe and Victor Swezey; Engineering by Sean Carter. Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
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From margarine to chocolate treats, some brands are swapping in cheaper ingredients to save money on their most beloved products. It’s a trend known as “skimpflation.” But what happens when consumers start to notice?
On today’s Big Take podcast, Stacey Vanek Smith hears from Brad Reese, grandson of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup creator, about his crusade against the practice, the multi-million-dollar cottage industry that’s formed around it and the economic conditions that got us here in the first place.
Read more: How Brands Sneak In Cheaper Ingredients to Protect Their Profit Margins
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When new neighbors move into Gainesboro, Tennessee, a small town at the foothills of Appalachia, locals are confused. Who are these self-proclaimed pioneers? And what do they want with their little town?

Locals soon discover the new arrivals are connected to something much larger: A network of far-right Christians who have ties to Washington and are backed by venture capital.

This is a story about a battle over identity fought on small town soil with small town spunk. Where acreage, heritage, and what it means to be an American are all up for grabs.
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With the US midterms fast approaching, voters and the media are increasingly looking to a new forecasting tool: prediction markets.
The leading platforms, Kalshi and Polymarket, have been touted as a truth serum for political forecasting — arenas for mass betting that reveal what people really think when they’ve got money on the line. But a new Bloomberg investigation has found evidence that these markets are vulnerable to manipulation.
On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder and Bloomberg investigative reporter Liam Vaughan dig into what can happen when prediction markets mix with politics — and how cheap and easy it can be to sway them.
Read more: How a Few Hundred Dollars Could Manipulate Election Prediction Markets
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Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Victor Swezey and David Fox; Reported by Liam Vaughan; Edited by Tracey Samuelson.
Fact-checking by Julia Press; Engineering by Alex Sugiura.
Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
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