Episode summary
Also Sticky | Money Stuff: The Podcast
Money Stuff The Podcast
· · Hosts: Matt Levine, Katie Greifeld
Summary
The episode spends most of its time on private credit redemption requests and the growing confusion around what liquidity was actually promised. The hosts argue that Apollo, Ares and similar private credit vehicles are doing what they said they would do: they are semi-liquid products holding illiquid loans, so managers are only allowing partial redemptions and refusing to force bad sales. At the same time, they note that fund inflows are still strong, with about $5 billion coming in this quarter even as redemption requests run far ahead of payouts.
They also discuss the idea that the real problem may be salesmanship rather than structure. One host says some investors and advisers may not have fully understood the liquidity restrictions, while the other points out that the product can still function as intended and yet feel bad to customers who want their money back at NAV. The conversation then broadens to BlackRock chairman Larry Fink’s annual letter, which frames AI as a giant shift from labor income to capital income, making universal basic index-fund ownership sound like the answer to a world where fewer people have jobs.
The back half turns to SpaceX’s possible IPO and the knock-on effects for lockups, index inclusion, and vehicles already exposed to SpaceX. They also discuss how closed-end funds and other proxies can trade at huge premiums when investors want SpaceX exposure, plus Elon Musk’s separate securities-fraud fight over the Twitter deal and the odd significance of “420” in that case.
Key takeaways
- Apollo and Ares are seeing redemption requests above 10% in their private credit funds, but they are only paying out about 5%, reinforcing the semi-liquid structure.
- The hosts think the private credit product is functioning as sold, but they worry the industry may have failed to clearly explain the liquidity restrictions.
- One host says $5 billion of inflows this quarter shows investors are still willing to buy private credit at NAV even as others are trying to exit.
- Larry Fink’s annual letter argues that AI will shift value from wages to corporate profits, so investors should own the companies that build and deploy it.
- The discussion of SpaceX focuses less on the IPO itself than on lockups, index rebalancing, and how proxies like closed-end funds could trade at huge premiums.
Notable quotes
“the private markets clients love the Iran war because it distracts from their problems”
“Certain distribution channels in certain parts of the globe may have not fully communicated the risks inherent to the asset class”
“there are clearly people who are looking around and saying this is oversold. This is overblown. Like it's not as bad as it seems”
“The information he reported that SpaceX might file to go public this week”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. Tell me about New Orleans. — I went to New Orleans. — Were the streets sticky — A little? Yeah. — You didn't like get on your knees and lick the floor? — A scientific sampling of the streets.
How was the uh the vibe, the conference? — It was good. you know, like I guess that I had this image of my mind in my mind of it's like a super fun conference and then at the end of the day it's an M&A law conference. You know,
I I don't know what you're saying. — We'll leave it to the readers the listener's imagination. — Well, I was in Las Vegas — Also sticky. — Yes, Las Vegas is also grim, but it was fun. — New Orleans is nice. Like I don't want to suggest
Yeah, New Orleans is beautiful. Bourbon Street is a strange place, but like New Orleans was nice and good food. Good architecture. Yeah, it was good. — There's mules pulling carriages. — I didn't see mules pulling carriages. Little like street car, like little tram. That's awesome. That was cool.
Yeah. There was none of that in Las Vegas, but we went to the Titanic Museum, which for some reason is in Las Vegas, famously landlocked, and it was a great conference. Got to talk shop with a lot of ETF folks, a lot of fans of the podcast.
Oh, great. Yeah, which is cute. — They're like, "Katie, we like the podcast. All that we ask is more ETF content." — Actually, yes. — Yes. Well, this is the ETF conference. — Yeah, I did text that to you. — Yes. — Yeah, that was cute. Any other news?
No, I got nothing.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private credit liquidity
- larry fink letter
- ai job displacement
- spacex ipo lockups
- consumer economy shorting
Companies and tickers mentioned
- BLK
- BlackRock
- SpaceX
Watch the episode
Watch “Also Sticky | Money Stuff: The Podcast” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Money Stuff The Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Bloomberg. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
