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Excess Returns · Investment

Excess Returns

We take complex investing topics and make them understandable for everyday investors. Subscribe to get new interviews every week with great investors and deep dives into topics like macroeconomics, value investing, factor investing, and more.

Episodes

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Inflation Is Rising. Stocks Aren’t Breaking. What If Markets Already Know?

30 Aug 2026AI processed

The Federal Reserve’s abandonment of forward guidance marks a significant shift in market dynamics, fostering increased uncertainty and volatility around policy decisions. Persistent, demand-driven inflation continues to exceed the Fed’s 2% target, rendering supply-side shocks less relevant to the long-term outlook. Me...

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The Profits Come Now. The Costs Come Later. What If AI Earnings Are the Bubble?

29 Aug 2026
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Private Equity Chased Software. Big Tech Is Chasing AI. Are They Making the Same Mistake Twice?

27 Aug 2026AI processed

Private equity currently faces a structural crisis characterized by inflated purchase prices, excessive leverage, and a backlog of assets that cannot be exited, positioning private credit as a superior risk-adjusted alternative. The software sector, once a growth darling, now struggles with technological obsolescence a...

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Rates Keep Climbing. Stocks Refuse to Break. What If They're Saying the Same Thing?

24 Aug 2026AI processed

High interest rates currently reflect strong real economic growth and productivity gains rather than purely inflationary pressures, rendering the simultaneous rise of equity markets and bond yields internally consistent. This economic environment is characterized by rotational cycles where specific sectors experience l...

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The Rally is Broadening. The Earnings Growth Isn't. Liz Ann Sonders on Which Breaks First

22 Aug 2026AI processed

The current economic landscape defies traditional linear cycles, defined instead by sectoral rotations and instability rather than simple uncertainty. Investors face a shift from the "Great Moderation," where stocks and bonds maintained a reliable inverse correlation, to a more volatile era marked by shifting monetary ...

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We Asked Andy Constan What Happens If AI Funding Breaks Before the Thesis — And if Warsh Blinks

20 Aug 2026AI processed

Market participants currently face a regime defined by high interest rates, record stock highs, and persistent inflation, all driven by strong growth expectations rather than a systemic debt crisis. Andy Constan, a market strategist, argues that the current economic expansion relies on a "hamburger thesis," where AI-fo...

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We Asked a Value Legend Why the Real AI Trade Isn't AI — And Why Passive Helps Stock Pickers

18 Aug 2026AI processed

Value investor Bob Robotti, founder of Robotti & Company, advocates for a "grassroots macro" approach, emphasizing bottom-up analysis of individual businesses to understand broader economic shifts. He argues that misunderstood fundamentals and long-term capital cycles create significant opportunities, particularly in i...

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Falling Rates. Rising Productivity. Are You Rooting for the Wrong Things?

17 Aug 2026AI processed

The current AI-driven productivity boom faces scrutiny regarding its sustainability and economic measurement. While AI significantly enhances output in sectors like software development—where coding efficiency has surged—the true economic value remains difficult to quantify against massive corporate investment. Histori...

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Big Semi Decline. Big Rally. Big Macro Risk | What the Options Market Says Comes Next

15 Aug 2026AI processed

Equity markets are transitioning from an AI-centric "token" trade to a macro-driven "rate" regime, where interest rate expectations increasingly dictate volatility and sector performance. Record options volumes, particularly in zero-day-to-expiration (0DTE) contracts, act as a primary driver of market movements, often ...

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Jim Paulsen Sees a Growth Scare Coming | The 34 Charts That Make Him Cautious

13 Aug 2026AI processed

Economic growth is decelerating more than current market sentiment suggests, signaling a transition from inflation-driven anxiety to growth-related recession fears. While AI-related capital investment has bolstered production metrics, the broader economy shows significant fragility, evidenced by stagnant job growth, de...

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We Asked T. Rowe's $8 Billion Tech Manager Why We Are in 1998 — And Why Software Is in Trouble

11 Aug 2026AI processed

AI represents a fundamental platform shift characterized by structurally capital-intensive token manufacturing, drawing parallels to the 1998 market correction as a potential buying opportunity. Hyperscalers are accelerating capital expenditure to secure frontier intelligence, with returns on invested capital expected ...

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The Last Bubble Starved Energy. This One Starves Housing. Is the Opportunity Where the Money Isn't?

10 Aug 2026AI processed

AI-driven capital expenditure is currently distorting the economy by siphoning resources away from critical sectors like housing and infrastructure, creating a significant misallocation of capital. While the Kolecki-Levy framework—where one person's spending generates income for another—explains current economic resili...

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A 3% Drop Sends VIX to 40 | What the Options Market Tells Us About What Comes Next

20 Mar 2026AI processed

The podcast analyzes current market volatility through the lens of options trading and upcoming OPEX (options expiration). It highlights the unusually wide vol premium, indicating investors are hedging against potential risks, particularly those related to geopolitical tensions and credit concerns. The discussion point...

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The $5 Trillion Trap | Kai Wu on the Risks of the Mag Seven's Big AI CapEx Bet

29 Oct 2025AI processed

In an interview on Excess Returns, Kai Wu from Sparkline Capital discusses his research on the AI CapEx boom, drawing parallels to historical infrastructure booms like railroads and the dot-com era. He highlights the significant acceleration of capital expenditure by major tech companies (Mag 7) into AI infrastructure,...

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You're Getting the Regime Wrong | Warren Pies on What Debasement Means for Your Portfolio

11 Oct 2025AI processed

The conversation centers on the concept of a "debasement regime," a psychological shift where investors prioritize protecting purchasing power over protecting principal. Warren Pies explains that this mindset, emerging post-GFC and accelerated by COVID-era fiscal stimulus, drives investment towards hard assets and mana...

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Seven Great Investors Break Down the Struggles of Value Investing | Special Guest: Tobias Carlisle

10 Mar 2025
1h 8m
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This podcast discusses the challenges and opportunities in value investing, particularly in the context of recent market trends. The hosts and guests analyze the widening value spread, questioning whether traditional value strategies still hold true in a technology-driven market dominated by a few mega-cap companies. ...

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Money Delusions: Barry Ritholtz on the Elusive Definition of Money and How Not to Invest It

07 Mar 2025
36m
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The Less Than Strategic Reserve: The US is Hedging the Demise of... Itself?

05 Mar 2025
1h 5m
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Practical Lessons from Bob Elliott

03 Mar 2025
58m
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The Market Illusion: Mike Green on Inflation, Geopolitics and the Hidden Recession

27 Feb 2025
57m
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