Episode summary
Hour of Slurping | Money Stuff: The Podcast
Money Stuff The Podcast
· · Hosts: Matt Levine, Katie Greifeld
Summary
The hosts start with the idea that weather risk can be traded, then move to a favorite 2026 specimen of market absurdity: Allbirds rebranding as "Newbird AI." They argue that the company’s sneaker sale, tiny financing package, and AI-infrastructure pivot look less like a serious data-center buildout than a short-squeezeable story stock fueled by shallow float, momentum, and hype.
That leads into a broader discussion of why some shell-like public companies have option value just from being listed. The host argues that if you own a thinly traded public company with a recognizable brand, the winning move is often to add "AI" or some other buzzword and let the market do the rest. They also note that the meme ETF angle is already chasing the move, which reinforces the idea that the trade is self-referential.
The second half shifts to Exxon’s attempt to let retail shareholders delegate proxy voting to the board, which the hosts see as a clever way to claw back power from institutional investors. They end with a story about New York’s coffee futures graders on the eighth floor of the NYSE, where testers slurp, spit, and grade coffee to keep commodity markets honest, before closing on old commodity-finance war stories about salad oil and frozen shrimp.
Key takeaways
- The hosts view Newbird AI’s pivot from Allbirds as more hype than a real AI infrastructure business, given the small financing and stock surge.
- A thin public listing can itself be valuable, because management can create "option value" by announcing an AI pivot or other narrative shift.
- The hosts think Exxon’s retail-voting program is a smart way to counterbalance institutions, even if governance critics dislike it.
- The coffee futures market relies on an unusually rigorous physical grading system, including a difficult exam and noisy cupping sessions on the NYSE floor.
Notable quotes
“I do think weather trading is fabulous. I read this week about a guy who was thinking about buying weather futures”
“It reminds me some price action. Reminds me of a simpler time in 2021 when meme stocks were raging”
“The stock market has rewarded pivots to AI in the past but but from people who had you know chips and servers and electricity”
“You know what is important? Coffee? Coffee. I was so charmed by this story in the Wall Street Journal”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio, news. I do think weather trading is fabulous. I read this week about a guy who was thinking about buying weather futures to hedge golf bets on the sports Yeah. platform that he ran because That makes a lot of sense.
All of the you're a sports betting platform, one of your correlated like systemic risks is weather risk. So you might as well trade rain futures or whatever. — I mean the weather is absolutely a factor when it comes to horse racing, which is one of the most popular or one of the oldest forms of sports betting. Okay, that's fair. That's fair.
Cuz you know, you have certain horses that are mutters You're right. — Who really love racing in the wet and other horses just don't even want to touch it. Yeah. Right. — Have to. Right. Well. Because of the abuse. Hello and welcome to the Money Stuff podcast, your weekly podcast where we talk about stuff related to money. I'm Matt Levine and I write the Money Stuff column for Bloomberg Opinion. And I'm Katie Greifeld, a reporter for Bloomberg News and an anchor for Bloomberg Television. Katie, there's a new bird in town. Not not Flosstradamus, your fallen friend.
But no, new bird AI. Yeah. — Formerly known currently known as Allbirds. I, you know, love that they kept the bird. Maybe they only did it — It doesn't matter. It's It matters, Matt. It matters. And I just I'm charmed by it.
They kept the bird. I love this story. I love I love the price action around this story. It reminds me some price action. Reminds me of a simpler time in 2021 when meme stocks were raging and you could just pivot into crypto or blockchain with seemingly few credentials and your stock would soar.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- convertible financing
- ai diversification
- meme etf
- shareholder voting
- commodity quality and futures vs spot
Companies and tickers mentioned
- XOM
- NewBird AI
- Long Blockchain
- Dot AI
- meme ETF
- Exxon
Watch the episode
Watch “Hour of Slurping | 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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