Money Stuff
Matt Levine on finance's structural absurdities, and how regulation and arbitrage work
37:58Sports betting repackaged as swaps dodges state gambling rules
Kalshi's sports betting contracts cover the same matches and point spreads, but because they're structured as federally regulated swaps, they escape state gambling law—the Supreme Court is about to rule whether this holds up.
41:29Banks profit from deposit inertia; AI agents are about to demolish that advantage
Many bank products are priced on the assumption that customers won't frequently move their deposits. Once an AI agent starts monitoring your accounts and automatically shifting idle money into higher-yielding vehicles, the entire pricing logic of these businesses starts to come unglued.
38:25Wanting to Save the World Is No Excuse for a Monopoly Agreement
AI labs want to jointly slow down model development, but four giants sitting down to talk about deceleration is, legally, a textbook antitrust conspiracy — wanting to save the world is not a defense.
40:39The Clippers Used Fake Endorsements to Skirt the Cap, and the NBA's Law Firm Found More
Wachtell's independent investigation did not clear the Clippers — it made the scandal bigger: beyond Aspiration, there is a string of fake endorsements funded by the Clippers that ultimately flowed to Kawhi Leonard.
37:30AI That Helps You Refinance Will Make Mortgages More Expensive
American mortgages are cheap partly because most people are too lazy to refinance when rates drop. Once AI agents remind everyone to refinance promptly, that option gets repriced, and mortgage rates rise.